MAZE X Loop

MOVING IMAGE, INTIMATE ENCOUNTER

In November 2024, MAZE partnered with LOOP for its 22nd edition at the Almanac Hotel in Barcelona. Founded in 2003 as the first fair dedicated exclusively to artists' films, LOOP has spent two decades redefining how moving image works are discovered, presented and collected. This collaboration brought together MAZE's curatorial sensibility with LOOP's pioneering format to create an experience where art, space and attention converge.

LOOP's signature approach transforms the hotel into a sanctuary for the moving image. Each participating gallery occupies a private room, carefully adapted to the specific needs of the work on view. Lighting, sound and spatial composition are calibrated to invite deep engagement. Visitors enter these intimate chambers at their own pace, settling onto sofas or beds to encounter films in conditions of focus and contemplation rarely possible in conventional fair settings. This deliberate slowing down of the viewing experience aligns with MAZE's belief that context shapes perception, and that meaningful encounters require space, time and intention.

The 2024 selection brought together thirty international galleries chosen by an independent committee of collectors and specialists. Participants included ADN, AKINCI, Analix Forever, àngels barcelona, Anne Barrault, Berg Contemporary, Carlier Gebauer, Chi Wen Gallery, Ciaccia Levi, Ciaudano, Drawing Room, DS Galerie, Esther Schipper, Fragment, Galeria Francisco Fino, Galerie Conradi, Galerie Véronique Rieffel, Galleria Heino, Grimm, Jorge López Galería, Josilda da Conceição Gallery, Management, Meno Parkas, NIKA Project Space, NOME, NO.NO, Proyectos Ultravioleta, Rosenfeld Gallery, Société, Stevenson, Suburbia Contemporary, Suzanne Tarasieve, Sylvia Kouvali, Tick Tack and Videoart at Midnight. This diverse roster reflected LOOP's commitment to emerging voices and established practitioners alike, weaving a global dialogue around the evolving language of artists' cinema.

Cultural programming deepened the curatorial narrative. The Loop Symposium gathered artists, curators and collectors to discuss the challenges and opportunities of presenting moving image work in contemporary contexts. Partnerships with institutions like MACBA reinforced the fair's role as a platform for critical reflection, while awards such as the Loop Fair Acquisition Award supported the integration of artists' films into public collections.

Through this partnership, MAZE contributed to shaping an environment where intimacy fuels discovery. LOOP's format echoes MAZE's philosophy: presence over spectacle, curation over accumulation, and emotional resonance over transaction. By framing each work within a carefully composed spatial and conceptual context, the collaboration affirmed that the moving image deserves not just visibility, but the conditions for true attention.

MAZE and LOOP share a conviction that the way we encounter art shapes what we take from it. In the quiet chambers of the Almanac Hotel, jewellery gave way to time, narrative and gesture. Here, luxury was redefined not as object, but as experience: the privilege of being fully present with a work that asks to be felt, not just seen.