Bienal politics: Vetoed video and the American protest
Art News, Feb. 1976, v. 75, no. 2, pp. 103-104, 106
A news item about the controversy surrounding the judging at the Sao Paulo Bienal. A show of American video art, featuring installations by Nam June Paik and Peter Campus as well as tapes by over 40 artists, was passed over by the team of jurors, who announced the awards for the Biennal before touring the video exhibit. Jack Boulton, the U.S. Commissiooner to the Bienal, threatened to withdraw the U.S. entry in an incident that was caught on camera and broadcast on Brazilian newscasts. The incident garnered an outpouring of support for Boulton from the press and from international artists, who decried the biases of the jury. The jury issued an official apology to the U.S., but phrased it to suggest technical difficulties were to blame; Boulton contended that the exhibit was entirely operational and that the jury was simply unprepared to view video art. The publicity that Boulton drew to the inequities of the jury system brought praise from the Bienale's many critics.
ITEM 1976.030 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Video Garden – Nam June Paik
SEV – Peter Campus