A young man stops along a country road at night and eerie events unfold. But the plot you have in mind is probably not even close to the turn that Matthew Barton's "Crossroads" takes, though there are ghosts involved. There's also a ghost -- or, more correctly, a spirit -- in Sun Young Kang's "Filtered Memories."

Barton's brief (3¹/₂-minute) film and Kang's room-sized installation are among the standouts in the generally praiseworthy Pittsburgh Center for the Arts "Biennial 2008," which is the first presented in conjunction with Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

The two organizations merged in 2006, and their combined staff and resources opened the door for an expansive presence for new media works. This biennial has also had, and continues, an unprecedented and laudable performance component (which will be a prominent part of the closing event Aug. 23), along with works exhibited inside the building and on its grounds.

A limited edition catalog of artist book quality, designed by Encyclopedia Destructica, comprises two parts, the second to be available Aug. 23 ($15 and $25).

With 40 artists, the biennial rivals the Carnegie International in size and would be unwieldy except that a large percentage of the exhibitors are video or performance artists, media that have unique space and presentation requirements that are not in competition with more stationary work such as photography and painting.

Fifteen works by as many artists are screened in a nearly two-hour long loop in a video room created at the center. This concept is new to the biennial and will evolve with subsequent exhibitions, said Laura Domencic, PCA director and biennial co-curator with PCA curator George Davis.

The works range from polished entities to experimental pieces; some of the latter would have benefited from editing. For more manageable viewing, longer works such as Paper Rad's delightful, bright 23-minute animation, "Problem Solvers," which makes its Pittsburgh debut here, could be shown by themselves in another gallery. Doing so in this case would also separate this child-friendly entertainment from adult-themed fare.

Barton's video is as off the wall as his Filmmakers biennial installation (now disassembled), a curious, succinct work that improbably raises a rarely addressed contemporary ethical issue and possibly even references transformation and redemption.

Other video room highlights include Buzz Miller's lyrical "Untitled" (3 minutes); Tom Sarver's documentary-style "Part I of Sarver's Fishing Report" (11); Drew Pavelchak's fine technique sampler, "Strands: Part I" (3:48); and Eileen Maxon's gnawing "UNKNOWN COURT TV" (3:17).

While she has one work in the video loop, Rebecca Einhorn's cryptic but engaging "Limestone Mine" is, inexplicably, exhibited in a hallway, perhaps referencing the long passageways in the film itself which morph from tunnel to metaphoric birth canal. At six-plus minutes, it's asking a lot of a viewer to stay with the complete work while standing. This problem isn't unique to Einhorn's piece or to the center, and is part of resolving how to best present this relatively new art form.

Installations add verve to the show, from Ed and Carley Jean Parrish's funk baroque "The Persistence of Old Growth Amid Worlds Adrift" to Denise McMorrow Mahone's deconstructions of codified knowledge, indoors ("(A)Line") and out ("Path").

Adam Welch's "Reference," a tour de force carved library (public or personal) with disheveled books, becomes all the more chilling when the sound of a strafing plane enters the room. One wants to duck -- whether to avoid overhead aircraft or the implications of complicity in a social structure now tumbling all around. (Welch is the PCA's 2008 Emerging Artist of the Year; his exhibition will open Sept. 12.)

Kang's "Filtered Memories," inspired by her late father's diaries, is memory and moment recast as elegance, the calligraphy of its floating panels created by impeccable "incense burning on Asian paper." So, too, fragility and strength meet in the quite spatial fields of her "Living Shadow" and "The Way to Be Empty, 1."

Bovey Lee gains power from playing against the expectations that accompany tradition in extraordinary paper cutouts that at first glance are delicate conventional forms but upon inspection make forceful socio-political commentary. "Atomic jellyfish," for example, blends the familiar mushroom cloud with the graceful floating sea creature, while the pierced bodies and structures of "Power Plant" arise from more current headlines.

Periodically, the PCA holds an exhibition that spills onto the building's grounds, but rarely have the artworks taken full advantage of the opportunity the site allows, and this is true of the biennial. Certainly, take a walk about the lawn to look at what's there -- Carin Mincemoyer's changing "Garden" in particular -- but most of these pieces could be placed inside as well.

From the finessed, if familiar, expression of established artists Robert Raczka, Dylan Vitone and Barbara Weissberger, to the less well known voices and visions of Jen Cooney, Michael Johnson and Margaret Cox, the artists in "Biennial 2008" give insight to the organizational philosophy that's developing as these two significant Pittsburgh organizations grow together.

The biennial continues through Aug. 24, at the center and at Filmmakers. The Aug. 23 closing event, "Iron Pour -- Hot Metal Happenings," begins at 7 p.m. at the center ($5). Also at the center are 23 Philadelphia-based artists showing in the first exhibition exchange between the PCA/Filmmakers and the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia.

For information, visit pittsburghbiennial.org/ or call 412-361-0873.