The exhibition encompasses work from the last three decades, a time when the presence of video-art in exhibition spaces became widespread.  It was during this period that, departing from its earlier stages of technical experimentation, video-art in Portugal started to question the role of the moving image in contemporary culture. We can witness the subversive appropriation of media paradigms such as the video-clip, the documentary, the advertisement spot, or the evening news, in an attempt to raise the public’s awareness of emerging and relevant political topics. Searching for subject-matter that is present accross different time-periods and bridges generations, this exhibition aims to sketch a thematic index as it simultaneously establishes a chronology.  "What do U Want 4 Xmas?" brings about a thematic stability that underlies the constant drift of technology.

We elected to group the 9 video-pieces in the exhibition under three topics, and to present them in three different moments. The first, between the 4th and the 16th of December will gather works by Carla Cruz & Ângelo Ferreira de Sousa, Maria Trabulo and Paulo Mendes  that respond directly to political events.  The works exhibited in the second moment, authored by António Olaio, Hernâni Reis Baptista and Fernando José Pereira criticize the accumulation and consumption that underpins capitalism and will be on display from December 18 to January 13. Lastly, between the 15th and  the 30th of January, the third moment calls for an analyzes of the role of women in contemporary society through the lens of Cristina Mateus, Margarida Paiva and Tânia Dinis.