In Alicante this spring, an international video arts festival stretches its unconventional reach beyond traditional screening rooms. The upcoming edition, announced as part of a fresh call for works, will unfold from May 5 to the following Friday, turning urban spaces into one long, open-air cinema. Rather than confining screenings to galleries and theaters, the festival quietly projects audio-visual pieces onto the city’s streets and storefronts, inviting residents and visitors to encounter moving images in everyday spaces. The curated program features sixty video creations without sound, selected for outdoor viewing as part of the ALC Videoart Festival. These pieces will illuminate the windows of Casamayor Real Estate (Calle Ángel Lozano, 17) and the Mothers Club (Esplanada de España, 26), transforming quiet urban façades into canvases for contemporary media art. This mode of presentation emphasizes accessibility and surprise, inviting passersby to pause, reflect, and reinterpret their surroundings through the language of video. The festival’s choice to present on open streets aligns with a growing trend toward urban engagement, where art meets daily life in a dynamic dialogue with the public. (Attribution: ALC Videoart Festival)
Meanwhile, a parallel program channels the festival through an indoor venue that anchors the experience within the cultural fabric of Alicante. Today onward, audiences can watch additional audio-visual works on the big screen in the auditorium of the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art, MACA. A rotating schedule runs daily between 6 and 8 p.m., offering a curated sequence that complements the street-facing installations. The museum program aggregates more than 120 selected works, drawn from a wide field of contemporary creators, and highlights the ways soundless video can still convey narrative, mood, and social commentary through imagery, rhythm, and timing. This indoor series is designed to contrast with the outdoor projections, giving visitors a chance to engage with works in a controlled, contemplative setting while still situating them within the broader city-wide festival. The museum’s contribution underscores the event’s commitment to accessibility and archiving, with a focus on enduring pieces that invite repeated viewing and discussion. (Attribution: ALC Videoart Festival)
In its third edition, the festival broadens its horizons by offering a panoramic view of current international video art. The organizers report that the call for proposals received more than 1,700 submissions from creators across five continents, reflecting a diverse array of cultures, techniques, and concepts. This breadth demonstrates the vitality of video art as a global medium that travels well across platforms and audiences, inviting dialogue about memory, identity, urban life, and technological change. The selection process prioritizes work that translates effectively to public and semi-public spaces, ensuring that the displayed pieces engage viewers who might not actively seek out art yet will encounter it in day-to-day settings. The result is a robust panorama of practice, from experimental experiments with form to more narrative-driven pieces, each contributing to a shared conversation about how moving images shape perception in the contemporary world. (Attribution: ALC Videoart Festival)
On Saturday, the Pozos de Garrigós venue will host a premiere presentation featuring a dozen participants who will present new works in an off-site context. Among them is Raphael, a Belgian-born artist, whose latest creation, Untitled#3, promises a fresh perspective on form, space, and perception. The off-site presentation provides a complementary strand to the citywide screenings, emphasizing the live, experimental nature of video art as it intersects with location, audience, and time. The inclusion of new work adds a sense of immediacy and discovery to the festival, inviting audiences to witness the evolution of ideas as they unfold in real time. (Attribution: ALC Videoart Festival)