Acting as a vehicle for sharing artists’ views on the world, the H Box programme remains a unique example of support for the creation and diffusion of video art. Devised by French artist, architect and designer Didier Fiúza Faustino, the H Box is an aluminium and Plexiglas structure that can seat up to ten viewers at a time. Made up of two modules that can be entirely dismantled, the H Box also features adjustable supports that raise it above ground level. Functional and mobile, this inventive architectural creation houses the latest, high-quality screening equipment in order to fully immerse spectators in the images of each video work.
Curated by independent curator Benjamin Weil – who is now Director of CAM, the artistic programme of H Box began with a first instalment at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where eight original works were screened. With new commissioned works added each year, the programme went on to travel to numerous exhibition spaces throughout the world. From Omer Fast to Rosa Barba, Ali Kazma, Cao Fei, Shahryar Nashat and Valérie Mréjen, H Box enabled twenty-one artists from Europe, Asia and North America, many of them in the early stages of their careers, to pursue often ambitious projects. The overall ensemble of individual video works constitutes a unique collection whose themes are multiple and diverse; some pieces shown in the touring H Box were also screened in parallel at major international artistic events.
More recently, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès oversaw restoration work on the H Box module, and in September 2024 supported its installation in the foyer of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Centro de Arte Moderna in Lisbon. The H Box is now open to the public once more, and hosts programmes of artists’ videos curated by specialists in this medium. Thanks to the prime viewing experience made possible by the H Box, the institution's international audience can enjoy a unique and richly diverse programme of video works.