Photograph of members of the Video-Nou collective at Parc Güell in 1977 during the International Libertarian Days, Video-Nou, Community Video Service, 1977
Exhibition
From 23 July 2026 to 11 January 2027
Light Filtered Through the Cracks
Collective creation in motion: from community video to contemporary collaborative practices
coming soon
Light Filtered Through the Cracks proposes a journey through the multiple forms of collective creation that have emerged through video from the 1970s to the present day. The central axis is the experience of Video-Nou / Servicio de Vídeo Comunitario, a collective active in Catalonia during the Transition that understood video not only as a technical medium, but also as a political and social tool capable of generating processes of self-organisation, neighbourhood empowerment and counter-information.
Starting from this historical point, the exhibition unfolds across different thematic zones that interweave the archives, practices and strategies of other national and international collectives, be they historical or contemporary. Far from a linear genealogy, the exhibition presents a constellation of experiences that blur the boundaries between art and activism, document and fiction, aesthetics and ethics.
As proposed, collective creation is not simply a way of creating as a group, rather it is a practice that challenges hegemonic notions of authorship, intellectual property, individual genius and narrative linearity.
When listening, negotiation and sharing come into play, these experiences invite us to rethink the forms of cultural production and to imagine other ways of relating to images, bodies and territories. Light Filtered Through the Cracks alludes to that dim but insistent luminosity that emerges on the margins. The light of the screen, a vehicle for narration, of presence and denunciation, becomes here a symbol of the practices that put the spotlight where no one was looking, that made the hidden visible, that understood other ways of saying and being.
In this context, information is not presented as a finished product, but as a process in movement, where informing is not only broadcasting data, but conveying experiences, raising questions, sharing knowledge and building relationships. This was one of the cornerstones of the work of Video-Nou / Servicio de Vídeo Comunitario: to put the medium at the service of the communities, to generate circuits of back and forth between those who record, those who speak and those who watch. In this way, video becomes a tool for mediation, active listening and the collective construction of the story.
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artists
artists
2 artists
curated by
María Berríos 
Daniel Gasol
artists
2 artists
gallery of images
4 images
Archival fonds
Fons Video-Nou / Servei de Vídeo Comunitari
[1976-1983]
MACBA Thirty
We celebrate Year Thirty of an infinite MACBA that projects the future as a space for revision and possibility: of taking up what was left unfinished, updating what needs it and projecting anew everything that can still be transformed.
