Devenir Vídeo (adiós a todo eso) is an in-depth documentary about the significance of video within the Spanish artistic context from the 1960s until the mid-2000s. The piece has been produced for the exhibition and research project Desacuerdos (Disagreements), and it features the majority of artists and artistic agents who have participated in the definition of what video art is and has been in Spain.

The documentary is almost three hours long and offers interesting fragments of interviews with artists, managers and theorists, such as Antoni Muntadas, Marcelo Expósito, Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba, María Ruido, Manel Clot, Carles Guerra, Juan Guardiola, Nuria Enguita, Santi Eraso, Carles Congost, Sergio Prego and Chus Martínez. The piece comprises four thematic episodes and an epilogue, offering different approaches to a definition of video and to the ways in which both its presentation and its relationship to the Spanish artistic context has changed over the years. The first part, Genealogía(s) del vídeo (Genealogy(ies) of video) looks into the evolution of the medium since its first appearance in the 1970s, when video had a clear political character, until the generation of artists who understand video from the context of the art gallery. The second part, La técnica como problema (Technique as a problem), unfolds through different approaches to the democratization and ease of production of the medium, and thinks about how these factors have influenced the artistic field. This second episode also considers the value that the new, as spectacular and empty, acquires. The third part, La cuestión ideológica (The ideological problem) inquires into the political value of video and into the different positions that the medium offers on a general as well as on a particular level, as in the case of feminist video or other work that approaches gender issues. Difusión y mercado (Distribution and market), the fourth part of the video, discusses the different modes of presentation of video, highlighting the role that galeries play in this and the work that video distributors are undertaking. It also tackles the issue of the reasons for the introduction of the medium into the institutional context.

The project Desacuerdos, of which this video is part, represents a point of inflexion in the historiography of art produced in Spain. Devenir Vídeo (adiós a todo eso) is a perfect example of the project’s philosophy: to search for new ways and new contents for the historiography of our time.