Hidden on Tape. Early Video Art in Europe

The history of video art has been covered in numerous publications and exhibitions to date. However, it is noteworthy that academic discourse in this area has focused primarily on the North American continent and artistic production there. Developments in video art within Europe, on the other hand, form an interwoven and sometimes opaque network of many isolated, fragmentary, and at the same time fragmented narratives. Only a few important European video art pioneers have achieved international renown. To this day, there is no Europe-wide history of video art. This is precisely where the exhibition Hidden on Tape. Early Video Art in Europe comes in.

The exhibition presents a selection of works from more than 26 European countries, with Europe understood as a geographical, cultural, and sociopolitical classification, providing an overview of developments in video art and its various forms in Europe from the end of the 1950s to the 1990s. It not only brings to light works that were previously hidden (on videotapes), but also highlights the influence of constantly changing cultural contexts, the varying availability of technical equipment over time, and the importance of cross-border networks on artistic production. 

Video art in Europe is characterized by plurality, diversity, versatility, and heterogeneity. And yet, a transnational perspective is worthwhile, especially in times when nationalist movements are gaining strength, in order to highlight commonalities despite all differences and to find new narratives far away from the familiar.

The exhibition Hidden on Tape is a partial result of the five-year research project Emergence of Video Art in Europe (2021–25), which is being carried out by the University of Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis and ECAL – École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (HES-SO) in collaboration with the French National Library (BnF) and with the support of ZKM | Karlsruhe. It was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR).