Video art, how it became a category. Video art is the first form of art that was given a history even before it actually had one. This paper counts the story of cultural institutions engaged in building a category based on technical devices, as if these devices were the only criterion to gather works that had little in common. Thus, it shows how technology has taken precedence over the most subversive messages, and, how, as a result, artistic experiences are currently being reshaped by this history. Since history defines the contemporary art field, we are confronted with works plainly reduced to their formal characteristics – the latter being supposed to continue a so-called tradition, or to be in a break with it, according to this idea that art has always kept in touch with the most recent technology. What is at stake is to understand how, while the field closes on its own logic, historic thinking will eventually classify videos according to criterions that separate them from other fields, such as independent cinema, literature, philosophy... Although it may seem obvious that video art is, in itself, interdisciplinary, this word calls for close reconsideration, since the latest developments of the arts made it a decisive factor of recognition.