1988 : Birth of the Festival Les Instants Vidéo in Manosque (Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture), founded by Chantal Maire (director of the MJC), Anne Van den Steen (visual artist) and Marc Mercier (comedian) and thanks to the support of the distributor Heure Exquise !
1990 : A meteor strikes the festival : the huge electronic poet Gianni Toti. The one able to connect in a same constellation the Russian revolutionary artists of the beginning of the 20th century (Maïakovski, Khlebnikov, Tatlin) with the pioneers of video art (Nam June Paik, the Vasulka….). He teaches us how to handle with the double battle of language and politics.
1992 : To multiply venues for video art screenings in the South-East Region of France, we develop the network Vidéo Lux Associés.
1993 : Co-foundation of the 1st video art festival in Morocco, Casablanca, with Ben M’Sik University of Humanities (with Beatrice Bertrand & Majid Seddati). Discovery of a young and talented artist: Mounir Fatmi. Foundation with the Moroccan artists Touria Hadraoui & Abdallah Zrika of the Icarist International bringing together all those who have not yet renounced their right to bear wings, despite the eventuality of the fall of Icarus.
1997 : The festival joins forces with the art and poetry Revue Incidences edited by Giney Ayme, who published a special edition under the title Burn your own patience.
When the artists Gaëlle Lucas, Sophie-Charlotte Gautier, Claire Dubois & Cathryn Boch exhibit Les Pisseuses. A journalist heads his article: Art or pig?
2000 : Back from the Balkans still wounded by war, we host artists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, from Croatia and from Serbia. Powerful emotion for the screening of the video The origin of the world by Zoran Naskovski: a gasp of pleasure against the cries of hatred and pain. An art work that will become the symbol of our poetic commitment, that is to metamorphose anger into a song of love.
2001 : The Croatian poet Tomica Bajsic, met in Zagreb, is arbitrarily imprisoned. Beaten up, he suffers a memory loss. In support to his sister Pavlica’s call, we create an international Committee for his liberation. After three months, he is freed. With Les Acharnistes, we publish his first book of poems in French.
2003 : Last edition of the festival in Manosque. We are invited to take a hike! Vast movement of support with the Quetzal committee, after a bird name which once in a cage, has his wings fading and his singing dying out.
2004 : A group of committed and involved persons, united by the artistic project of the festival, creates the association Les Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques. When living Manosque to Marseille, we turn our local presence to an international and nomadic momentum, thanks to the numerous organisations which offers to welcome one of the Festival stopovers.
We receive 500 artistic proposals.
2006 : Naïk M’Sili comes up with the most audacious idea in the history of Les Instants Vidéo, to create a video art festival in Palestine. We go there, Gaza, Jerusalem, Ramallah.
We publish a history of video art and of the festival, Le temps à l’œuvre / F(r)iction (Time at work/F(r)iction) by Marc Mercier.
2007 : To tears planetizens ! Our friend Gianni Toti passed away on January, 8. With him, we gave birth to the world poelitic.
With Alain Bourges and Richard Skrysak, we create the newspaper of information and critics Les Acharnistes.
2009 : Co-foundation, with the A.M. Qattan Foundation (Mahmoud Abu Hashhash and Nisreen Naffa), and Philippe Guiguet Bologne (at that time, director of the French Institute in Ramallah) of the 1st Video art and performance Biennale in Palestine, /si:n/.
We accompany the creation of the 1st Video art festival in Syria with the organisation AllArtNow in Damas (Abir & Nisrine Boukhari)
2010 : Birth of the first Ephemeral popular gallery in partnership with ADPEI (and Issma Benkhaled), an association working in the social field, where cultural and poetic rights are explored in some other ways.
Interwoven lands will be the title given to the festival.
2011 : Spring coming, the people of Arab countries uprise. We publish a Zutist Manifest calling all the artists to join this breath from the south with a revolution in languages.
We participate in the 1st Video art festival in Kirghizstan.
2012 : Celebration of situationist and Dionysian ceremony of marriage in the Mairie d’Outrance (The council of the Excess), for the opening to the 25 Festival Les Instants Vidéo, dedicated to the People of Greece “guilty” of having debts and to all the passionate and creative resistances, in a partnership with Les Rencontres d’Averroès.
2013 : Celebration of the 50 anniversary of video arts in Tokyo, Yokohama, Liege, Casablanca, Ramallah and finally Marseille that will become the World Capital of video and digital arts for a month.
Co-fondation of the 1st Video art festival of Alexandria with Bibliotheca Alexandrina, thanks to a fruitfull and friendly collaboration with the RAMI project.
2014 : Festival For a free circulation of bodies and desires, where we proclaim the duty of unconditional hospitality as indisputable and universal.
Presentation of the biggest video art exhibition from Taiwan, Schizophrenia 2.0, in cooperation with Pierre Bongiovanni (ex-director to the International Center for Video Creation, CIPV).
2015 : Our poster You wanted me a virgin, I wanted you less dumb! Is acclaimed.
2016 : Facing the inflation of freedom-killing policies and the revival of identity and obscurantist mania in Europe, we declare a State of poetic emergency.
The White night (and sleepless night) devoted to video arts, performance and psychoanalyses gathered almost a thousand persons: we are never poet enough!
2017 : Under the title Our desires are disorder, with 30 events without borders (Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine, Kirghizstan, Egypt, Argentina, Italy, France) and in an undisciplined way (art spaces, social spaces, cinema, WebTV…), we celebrate the 30 years of our festival.
30 years that our desires are disorders
30 years that we break through cultural, social and economic barriers
30 years that together with the artists, we draw escape plans
30 years that we forge networks of international poetic and political complicities
30 years of poelitic intercontinental video agitations
2018 : Humans of the world, caress! The 31 edition of the festival celebrates Ovide 2000 years and May 1968, combining the desire to change life (poetry) with the desire to transform the world (politics).
2019 : Jean-Luc Godard entrusts his film The book of image to us, for the openings of the festival /si:n/ and Les Instants Vidéo, allowing therefor the celebration of the union of the 3 cities, Marseille, Gaza and Ramallah.
We co-produce with the REF (France Euromed Network) a publication Cultural and poetical rights around the mediterranean sea, made of experiences, analyses, resistances from Syria, Algeria, France, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Malta, Libya, Palestine.
2020 : We received 1100 artistic proposal, from 75 countries.
The 33rd Festival Les Instants Vidéo, Death, life is stalking you! remained under lockdown, an invisible festival.
For the 10 years of the Ephemeral Popular Galleries, we broadcast a radio program gathering all the stakeholders of the project (artists, social organisations users and professionals, students in documentary films, and the IV team).
2022: From 2022, it is a collective of 4 persons that share the responsibilities of the association artistic choices. We are therefore putting into practise new forms of working together, with the desire to introduce horizontality in the process of fabrication of the festival, as well as in the relationships with artists.
Since 1988, we presented more that 4800 artists and 7300 art works in Europe, Asia, North Africa, Middle East, Far East, Central Asia, South and North America. We owe them so much.
