Alma Enterprises are pleased to present an exhibition of new video works by international artist Manuel Saiz.

A New Chance for Symbolic Dimension presents an opportunity to see two new video works - 'A New Chance for Symbolic Dimension' (2005) and 'Social Sculptures (everybody is an artist) (2005) and also the London premiere of the critically acclaimed 'Specialized Technicians Required: Being Luis Porcar' (2004).

Manuel Saiz is an international video artist. His work is concerned with the relationship between human behaviour and digital technology and in particular the impact of digital technologies on contemporary society.

The new works expose the semantic precariousness of apparently transparent forms of communication and meaning. Using the grammar and narrational devices of various genres, such as the television soap opera, documentary, TV commercials and film, the works provoke questions that are fundamental to the idea of what is 'art' and 'the artist' and the recreation and representation of experience.

'Specialized Technicians Required: Being Luis Porcar' is a video installation in which Luis Porcar, a well-known Spanish dubbing actor, speaks for one minute about his work when dubbing the voice of the American actor John Malkovich. The video is presented dubbed into English by John Malkovitch himself, thus closing the conceptual loop of the work with his collaboration.

'Social Sculptures (everybody is an artist)' is an installation in which those immortal words by Joseph Beuys that changed attitudes to art and authorship in contemporary art are repeated again and again by three actors. Each actor is directed to employ different ways of delivery (anger, sadness, joy) to convey a range of meanings and emotions.

'A New Chance for Symbolic Dimension' (2005), which gives name to the show, is a video installation based on a scene of Ingmar Bergman's "The Magician" (Ansiktet, 1958). It uses a clever application of mechanical sorcery that creates magic phenomenon that echoes the fakery and trickery of the film.

Manuel Saiz is a London-based international video artist and curator. Selected solo shows include Se requieren tecnicos especializados (Specialised Technicians Required), Galeria Moriarty, Madrid (2005), Nominal_Politics, T1+2 Artspace, London (2003) and selected group shows included 'Project 1', Alma Enterprises (2004), East End Academy, Whitechapel gallery, Coalesce:foro, Barcelona. Recent curated shows include No Pre No Con (Ni premises ni conclusions) Galeria Moraity, Madrid and All Tomorrow's Déjà vu, Island Art Film and Video Festival (London) and Video Mundi Festival (Chicago)

a LAND production