BRUSSELS.- Rewind, Replay: Vidéographie pays homage to the groundbreaking Belgian television program Vidéographie, produced and broadcast by RTBF from 1976 to 1986. Conceived as both an artistic platform and a tool for public access, Vidéographie was pioneering in its approach. While challenging conventional television formats, it opened its screens to the rapidly emerging field of video art.

Across 132 episodes, the programme became a site of experimentation, showcasing works by local and inter- national artists while engaging directly with the cultural and political debates of its time. It reflected a moment when new, more accessible audiovisual technologies transformed the artistic field, creating opportunities for wider participation.

In co-organization with SONUMA—Les Archives audiovisuelles and in collaboration with Space Collection in Liège, argos presents a selection of archival episodes, excerpts, thematic compilations and complete video works. The exhibition underscores the programme’s experi- mental energy, its spirit of accessibility, and its ability to foster dialogue by building networks across artistic, technological, and social spheres. By foregrounding these elements, it reactivates the spirit of Vidéographie as a living archive, one that continues to resonate with today’s digital culture, collective authorship, and experi- mental media practices.

Anti-television television

Vidéographie was as eclectic as it was radical, blending art, technology, and television to reach a broad and diverse audience, from those well- acquainted with art to complete newcomers. Its episodes ranged from playful rhythmic interludes to open conversations with influential thinkers of the time, while simultaneously addressing critical social struggles and exploring television as a participatory, democratic medium.

By turning TV against itself—what has been described as ‘anti-television television’ Vidéographie created a space for artists and activist groups to challenge and question dominant images and information.

From local screens to global networks

Influenced by American experiments in public-access and community television during the 1970s, which opened studios and airtime to emerging artists working with video, Vidéographie embraced similar modes of media critique and creative intervention. American artists were among the first to explore the paradoxes of television: a mass medium reaching millions of viewers, yet received in the privacy of the home. This was in a context marked, in the United States as elsewhere, by widespread protest movements that challenged the social and political hierarchies of the time. Television then revealed its potential as a vehicle for personal communication and as a privileged space for new forms of criticism. Video became a versatile tool for artists: documenting the street, recording performances, or even turning the tape itself into a performative act. Rewind, Replay: Vidéographie presents a fragment of this American video art scene, which was marked by a rare vitality.

Video art, ready to use

Distinguished by its unique approach to public access television, Vidéographie ensured that its audiences were informed about the emerging functions of tele- vision, broadcasting media, and its expanding public through educational episodes. These programs intro- duced viewers to new media technologies such as the portable Portapak video camera, highlighting how these tools could be used outside professional studios and appropriated by the public in their everyday lives.

At the same time, Vidéographie opened Belgian audiences to both local artists experimenting with video for the first time and to pioneering inter- national practices that were reshaping the medium. By framing video not only as an artistic tool but also as a democratic means of communication, the programme showed its viewers how the medium could be used fluidly, at once for art, critique, peda- gogy, and activism. In doing so, Vidéographie cultivated an awareness that video could be both a personal and collective instrument, capable of broadening participation and redefining how culture was produced and shared.

Continuities and crossovers

Vidéographie also inspired the creation of a video- specific curriculum at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Liège. Several Belgian video artists featured in the programme later went on to teach there, passing on to new generations the spirit of experimentation that defined it.

This section of the exhibition highlights how the introduction of video encouraged artists to move beyond the boundaries of their usual mediums, fostering crossovers between different practices and paving the way for new hybrid forms within the visual arts. It presents the work of four video artists from two subsequent generations, both directly tied to Vidéographie’s legacy. The first (Ronald Dagonnier and Dominique Castronovo) are former pupils of artists featured in the programme, such as Jacques Louis Nyst, while the second (Eva L’Hoest and Theo Naniot) are graduates of the ‘Videographie’ course. Together, these interwoven lineages reflect the programme’s lasting influence and its role in shaping video art across generations.

In this exhibition, Vidéographie is deliberately presented as a living and evolving archive. Contem- porary and historical works are placed side by side, inviting visitors to weave their own connections between the past and the present.