Bad Video Art Festival

The International Bad Video Art Festival (BVAF) is an independent artist-run initiative. Video artists and bad movie fans Natalia Monakhova and Andrey Slaschilin have once decided to find out whether there is something like bad video art. It is well known that bad movies have long ago formed a special cultural field with its own heroes and fans. In other arts sectors the issue of the bad has not been problematized so actively. Natalia and Andrey founded the International Bad Video Art Festival which was first held in March 2017 in A3 Gallery (Moscow, Russia) thanks to the support of the then-Director of the gallery Andrey Volkov. Curators of the Bad Video Art Festival Natalia Monakhova and Andrey Slaschilin propose to study extreme forms of video art. According to the curators videos shown at the Festival are at the intersection of bad art, “bad” painting and bad cinema (B-movies, cult, camp, trash) but still have not been introduced as an independent category for profound studying.
 One of the artistic tasks of the Festival is studying the issues of quality in art. Can art be judged as good or bad? Can we talk about good and bad taste in relation to art in general and video art in particular? Is it possible that the issue of taste (a popular subject of cinema studies) is irrelevant as the subject of video art studies? 
 
 As Bourdieu wrote, it is not possible to get rid of hierarchy. The meaning and value of a cultural object depend on its coordinate system.
 
 Calling something “bad” and showing it is a game, which is impossible to lose. The viewer may not like what he sees but he won't be deceived. He has never been promised anything good, on the contrary, he was warned not to count on anything. This is not Louvre. What Venera? She is not here. There is no competition, no hype. Just bad video art from all over the world because it really exists in this world. And there are artists fearless enough to take part in the Festival without being afraid of labels or disrepute.
 
 Bad Video Art Festival is a good example of successful international communication beyond any geographical, social or cultural limits, or fictional ranking.