Catalogue > Search

One of the pragmatic solutions to the problem of how people will be able to find their way in a theatre or cinema are the small lights that, hidden in this place or that, show the audience where to step and where not, and where to choose a chair. Now imagine: complete darkness. Enter. Ask yourself to stop imagining and look at . ..... .:.:...:::ccccoCCoooo:: While looking at it, the question becomes: what is looking? At this point the guiding lights may come back with a vengeance. Usually we look in order to orient ourselves. Either in response or consequently, much arts is directed at disorienting ourselves. That leaves the question unanswered as to what looking is. Still, that is one of the key questions in Pointekers work. In order to be able to answer that question, Pointeker has to both steer away from, and connect to the average language of cinema ? and photography. The way in which he succeeds in doing that reminds one of concrete poetry. But this is not more than a reminder. Concrete poetry was by and large a response to something else: what we knew already. Dialectically, concrete poetry remained bound up with what we already knew. In terms of cinema, Pointeker somehow knows how to escape that route. He doesn?t show it, though. What he shows is what appears. We find ourselves in complete darkness. A light shines, some lights shine: a car makes its way. Let?s take that literally: ?a car makes its way?. This is not a car that is being used to get from here to there. Making light, the car makes a way. Other images follow: all make way. We look, caught in the light of what is being shown ? and we start to sense what looking is. (Frans-Willem Korsten)

A cinematic poem shrouded in shadow and mist. An image of water whose surface reflects the surrounding light. The hands of a woman holding a purse in the gloom of a city street. A snow-covered mountain landscape with massive trees reached by a cable lift. Through the sensitive composition of the film, these seemingly banal images begin to speak and reveal an inner world, an inward dream landscape of anxiety, alienation, isolation, and desire. Entrancing poetry relies on a delicate grasp but it’s impossible to resist its inner magic. (Hubert Poul)

Ben Pointeker is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Vienna. His work often sets in between film and photography and is concerned with poetics, patterns of narrative cinema, the notion of time, ambiguous realities and fantasy. Previously based in The Netherlands he graduated from Piet Zwart Institute and won the Prix de Rome basic award. He is also a graduate of the University of applied arts Vienna and was artist in residence at Wiels in Brussels, in Shanghai and most recently at Bòlit in Girona in the framework of The Spur. He has exhibited at institutions such as Secession Vienna, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius, Filmmuseum Amsterdam and major film festivals.

This film is about Julien Blaine. He is poet performer ; he writes, sceams, acts, performs,danses ? He acts out his poems as art, revealing the essence of his writings and his research to the public . Poet performer since 1962, today he is 62 years old. This film brings together two of his most well-known performances « la chute dans les escaliers de la gare Saint Charles » and his first « l?interview des éléphants. » The film is an interpretation of his creation, and his actions by his daughter, the director. It?s her take on his work ; a film in which she confronts the past and the present and invites the viewer to decipher, to feel and to make sense of the work.

After studying at the Beaux-Arts in Cergy/France and at the Fémis, I participated as a producer and camerawoman to many short films. I also directed many videos to go wih readings of poets as well as videos for a theatre company and musicians. I directed three movies about performance: Last Festival, Bye bye la perf and this one about Julien Blaine. I worked on the lights for the Alzhar theater company and for the band Diabolicus.

Toppling statues and symbols, constructing new memories, framing the destroyed landscape, writing letters to the future, reversing power dynamics: BIG BANG HENDA is a documentary-poetry-manifesto about the work of Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda. He takes us on a journey through his creations and reflections, which are at the forefront of anti-colonial thinking, urging us to consider how generations that grew up during or in the aftermath of the war reinterpret this event.

Fernanda is a screenwriter and director, living between Brazil and Portugal. She has been working in the intersections between Brazil, Portugual and the African Portuguese speaking countries and former colonies of Portugal for decades. Her first feature as a writer, Mosquito, was the opening film at the Rotterdam FF (2020) and won the Critics Prize at the São Paulo International FF (2020) besides touring dozens of festivals. Her second feature, The Last Summer, is currently in production after being selected for the Script Station at Berlinale 2023 and RACCONTI. She has been developing, writing, and directing for TV, streaming and cinema, and some of her works have received awards and nominations at the Brazilian Cinema Academy, New York TV&Film Festival, Hollywood Woman’s FF, among others. She is part of the Torino Film Lab 2023. She is a co-founder of MUTIM, a woman in film association in Portugal.

?Blisko? (?Close?) ? about alienation in the big city. The artificial light inside the night trams creates a new reality.

I was born in 1979. Between 1998 and 2004, I studied at the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. In 2004, under the tutelage of prof. Grzegorz Przyborek, I obtained the certificate and title of Master of Fine Arts in asvertising photography. Since 2003, I have also participated in multimedia workshops held by prof. Konrad Kuzyszyn and Łukasz Ogórek, MFA. I was a post-graduate, free participant there. Since that time, my interests hav revolved around film and video. In 2007, I went on a three-month scholarship to France, organised by the Strasbourg Klub, the City of Strasbourg as well as the CAAC.

This film introduces an alienating yet familiar landscape of satellite images, tracks and sound. We follow the minute by minute movements and sounds of animals and machines, the chatting of people in Philadelphia. Although we constantly hear reality, we experience the movements within an abstract, two dimensional world of satellite photography. Without any crew present, the protagonists recorded their trajectories, sounds and private readings of the streets, allowing the filmmakers to access their experiences only afterwards. The film positions the audience as unwitting voyeurs. The meditative approach questions our contemporary techno-society, where social connectivity and eavesdropping coexist and balances between empathic co-traveling and voyeurism. The film resulted from a 7 month “Art in Public Space/Percent For Art” residency of Dutch visual artists Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum in Philadelphia.

Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum work together under the name PolakVanBekkum. Their work focusses on landscape and mobility. Routed in the history of the Dutch realistic landscape depiction, they engage with new technologies like GPS and data collection, to express individual experiences of spaces like the contemporary city and countryside. They search for changing ways to be in landscapes and how this influences the human understanding of space and the stories we tell to explain our lives. Besides the digital and technological innovative, they use very concrete means of visualisation, like drawings in sand or light, which makes their work very tangible and direct. Their projects are often informed by collaborations with participants, be it humans, objects, or even the rays of the sun. They have worked and exhibited internationally, at Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, ZKM Karlsruhe, London, IMAL Brussels, Rento Btattinga | Gallery Amsterdam, Museo for Image and Sound Sao Paolo, Nairobi, Lagos, Marrakech, Paris, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In 2005 Esther Polak did receive a Golden Nica for interactive Art at Ars Electronica together with Ieva Auzina, for their MILKproject. Esther Polak is educated at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. Ivar van Bekkum is educated as journalist.

In A Collision of Sorts, inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, (Pennsylvania, US) go there way, as discontinuous moving dots on a flat surface. The world in which this film plays is Google Earth: an alienating landscape of almost seamlessly stitched-together satellite images of the familiar planet we humans are moving around on. On Google Earth, nothing moves. Buildings, bridges and cars seem warped and flattened and compete for attention with the black weirdness of their own shadows. A virtual camera shows this frozen flattened landscape, reconnoitring the cityscape of the city. Meanwhile we hear sounds and voices. People and animals are down there, crossing the country. It is them who share a physical reality: we hear very intimately their breath, the rustling of clothes, traffic, their vehicles. They travel from one place to another giving the suggestion of a destination. They talk about encounters, visual, economic, political, social and personal but never the main characters seem to meet. Until a bad dream of one of them seems to come true.

Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum work together as artist-couple under the name PolakVanBekkum. Routed in the history of the Dutch realistic landscape depiction, they express personal experiences of moving and space. Their projects are often informed by collaborations with participants, be it humans, animals, or even the rays of the sun. Their work has been shown at amongst others: FID Marseille, Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, ZKM Karlsruhe, Media-Lab Prado Madrid; INIVA London, IMAL Brussels, Rento Brattinga | Galerie Amsterdam, Pixelache Helsinki, Lagos, Biennale Marrakech, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. 2016 Special Mention for the film Once We Get There Riga 2015  Expanded Media Preis For Network Culture at Stuttgarter Filmwinters - for “The Mailman’s Bag” 2005 Golden Nica for Interactive Art at Ars Electronica together with Ieva Auzina, with MILKproject. Esther Polak studied at the Rijksakademie for visual Arts in Amsterdam and the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, NL Ivar van Bekkum studied journalism at the School for Journalism, Kampen, NL

Dreaming of better lands, from generation to generation, because of poverty, hunger and wars, we voyage across the seas. Geography is destiny. Do our bodies retain the memories of our grandfathers; are memories of running away in search of better lands imprinted on our bodies? 'Porvenir' means 'future' in Spanish. Porvenir is the only town in Tierra del Fuego, at the bottom of the world, founded by Croatian immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century.

Renata Poljak (Split, 1974) is a visual artist and filmmaker. She graduated from the Arts Academy in Split, Croatia in 1997 and obtained an MA at École Régionale des Beaux-Arts (Film and Video Department) in Nantes, France in 1999. Her works have been shown at numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions, biennials and film festivals. She received many grants and awards, including the T-HT award – one of the most important contemporary arts awards in Croatia, in 2012. Her residencies include San Francisco Art Institute, Museum Quartier Vienna, Art In General, New York, Cité Internationale des Arts and Recollets in Paris and many others. Her films were screened at the Prospective Cinema at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 2010 and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2012.

Tales from the Source offers a gaze on the landscapes of the Democratic Republic of Congo to translate a sense of its unfathomable power, diversity and knowledge. The scenery is presented as a character acting as a living entity and inhabited by the symbolism of Congolese traditions. The visual approach borrows techniques from multispectral imaging, resulting in an otherworldly experience with surreal lights and colour. Combined with an original musical composition by Bear Bones, Lay Low, we enter into a sensory dialogue with the landscape, an intelligent, ageless being in constant transformation that challenges our perception.

Léonard Pongo (b. 1988, Liège, Belgium) is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works between Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pongo's work explores the complexities of perception, and representation while challenging conventional portrayals of the DRC with a focus on traditional narratives and symbols, and their connection to the land. Initially trained as a photojournalist, Pongo's artistic journey began in 2011 when he traveled to the DRC to cover the presidential elections. This experience profoundly transformed his approach to photography, shifting from objective documentation to a more subjective and experiential mode of expression. His family and local communities challenged his initial perspective, encouraging him to develop a more nuanced and intimate portrayal of Congolese life. Pongo is renowned for his mixed-media installations that integrate textiles, photography, diverse printing techniques, and moving images. His work draws deeply from Congolese cosmologies and oral traditions, particularly embracing the concept that "not everything is visible." Using specialized techniques including full-spectrum photography that captures wavelengths beyond human vision, he reveals aspects of landscapes and experiences typically hidden from view. His long-term project "The Uncanny" (2011-2017) explores daily life in the DRC through evocative black-and-white imagery that creates a dreamlike atmosphere, while "Primordial Earth" (2017-ongoing) focuses on the land using color photography, textiles, and video installations to evoke a sense of spirituality and interconnectedness. His latest film, "Tales from the Source" (2021-2024), extends his focus on traditional narratives, focusing on the luba cultures and highlighting the intertwined nature of culture and environment. Pongo's collaborative approach involves working closely with communities across the DRC, drawing inspiration from their knowledge, stories, and traditions and creating visuals that align with the lineage of Luba traditions by creating contemporary forms connected to ancestral concepts and visions. His work has been exhibited internationally at prestigious venues including the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, the Tate Modern in London, the Dakar biennale in Senegal, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. In 2023, his first monograph "The Uncanny" was published by Gostbooks, and in 2025 he was selected as one of ArtReview's "Future Greats" by photographer Roger Ballen.

Every winter the Yurungkash River in western China dries up, revealing an expanse of river-worn stones. There, hidden within the rock, lies a buried treasure forty times more valuable than gold?jade. Hundreds of people gather in the riverbeds, endlessly scrabbling at rock in search of a jewel they are unlikely to find. Still, the small glimmer of hope prevails over weary backs and frozen figures. As we watch the countless poverty-stricken men and women in unrequited pursuit, we are perhaps left to ponder our own failed quests for diamonds in the rough, as well as the extraordinary?and quixotic?measures we`ll resort to in pursuit of wealth.

A graduate of the National Film & Television School, Urszula is a Polish-born, London-based cinematographer/director and stills photographer. With a continuing career in feature film drama she is also currently developing a feature length documentary which tackles similar issues to ?China?s Wild West?, but this time across several continents.

Levi, a young craftsman, drifts through the city streets with a restless sensitivity. He wanders day and night through dimly lit bars, pulsing clubs, and silent playgrounds, crossing paths with friends, strangers, animals, and even inanimate objects along the way. Each encounter is fleeting, each moment fragmented. Levi listens, touches, remembers—yet nothing fully coalesces in his grasp. Through Levi’s quiet journey, the film explores the trauma of displacement and the uncanny ways it warps memory and perception. Time loses its shape as past and present blur into a multitude of overlapping narratives. Voices, smells, and sensations from different moments merge together—at times overwhelming, at other times hyper-specific. As Levi seeks to feel and understand amid this blur, the film quietly meditates on the act of observation itself and on the emotional resonance of longing and transience. No one came from Afar was created during the director’s own exile in Germany. It draws upon the different yet emotionally similar experiences of displacement shared by the filmmaker and the lead actor, Levi Hartmann. This personal context subtly shapes the film’s perspective, grounding its poetic exploration of longing and transience in lived reality.

Mohammad Poori (b. 1987, Sari, Iran) is a filmmaker and curator based in Hamburg and currently a Master student in Film and Time-Based Media at HFBK. His work focuses on collective trauma, exile, and the politics of memory, with particular attention to how narratives are fragmented and reactivated under conditions of displacement. He is a recipient of the Neue Kunst in Hamburg travel grant (2024–25) and will be a fellow of the MAK Schindler Scholarship Program at the Mackey Apartments in Los Angeles (2026–27).

"On the 16-th of February 2005" video work resembles a time-based painting depicting (documenting) a woman sitting by a table. At first sight, the sight looks completely still. The image awakens curiosity and contemplation as to what really happens as time moves forward. Consequently, the viewer could clearly determine that objects change locations, however the process of their movement remains unnoticeable. In the end time moves ?faster?, revealing some of the surrounding space and the author in the process of videotaping what is happening in front of her eyes. The video footage has not been altered in order for me to reach the "stillness" effect; it is completely true to the real site and time.

I was born and raised in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I started my fine art education at my age of twelve with painting and drawing lessons. I graduated the College of Theater and Fine Arts, Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1991. Later I studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria, majoring in Stage Design in the class of Professor Svetoslav Kokalov. I concentrated mainly on classical playwrights such as Sophocles, Shakespeare and Chekhov. In 2001 I graduated the MFA Photo and Digital Imaging program at The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, USA, class of Professor William Larson and media theorist Timothy Druckrey. My current work investigates the limits of perception, attempting to express in different forms the presence of the hidden/invisible. Since 2001 I live and work in Chicago, Illinois.

Naked bodies are buffeted by water accompanied by the music Il Temporale from the opera La Cenerentola and the overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia both by Gioacchino Rossini. The film is part of a show by Carles Santos: El compositor, la cantante, el cocinero y la pecadora (The composer, the Singer, the Cook and the Sinner).

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).

As publicity for the exhibit Miró L`altre, organized by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Catalunya in 1969, the Board commissioned Pere Portabella to film Miró painting the "poster" for the exhibit on the ground floor windows of the building. Portabella was not interested in simply filming a testimonial documentary. However, he said he would do the film if after the exhibit Joan Miró himself, with the help of the cleaning staff erased his own painting. Joan Miró accepted the idea without a doubt. The complicity between the film maker and the painter is evident in the filming.

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).

The film was conmissioned by the Galeria Maeght to commemorate the Joan Miró exhibit organized by the French Minsitry of Cultural Affairs in the Grand Palais in Paris that opened on May 17, 1974. The film, that took five days to shoot, shows the smelting and casting process of the work known as Puertas Mallorquinas by Joan Miró. The filming team travelled to the foundry owned by the Parellada family in Llinars de Munt. The bronze sculptures weigh 1200, 800 and 650 kilos respectively and were cast in one piece in a kiln specially constructed for the occasion.

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).

The film was commissioned by the Galeria Maeght for the Joan Miró exhibit organized by the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs in the Grand Palais in Paris that opened on May 17, 1974. The film was shot in six days in Montroig del Camp (the Miró country home) and in Tarragona during the process of elaboration of an original tapestry for eight months using 1200 kilos of wool and 600 kilos for the warp. The tapestry was 6 meters wide and 11 meters long and weighed a total of 3,500 kilos. A special loom had tobe built to weave it. The day the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York were attacked, September 11, 2001, the tapestry was hanging in the hall of the one of the towers and was destroyed along with it.

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).

The Colegio de Arquitectos de Catalunya commissioned Pere Portabella to make this film for the Joan Miró retrspective exhibit in 1969. There wew heated discussions on whether it would be rudent to screen the film during the exhibit. Portabella took the following stante: "either both films are screened or ther don`t screen any" and, finally, both Miro l`Altre and Aidez l`Espagne were shown. The film was made by combining newsreels and film material from the Spanish Civil War with prints by Miró from the series "Barcelona" (1939-1944). The film ends with the painter`s "pochoir" known as Aidez l`Espagne.

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).

Carles Santos plays one of his pieces on the piano. This film was made for the exhibit on Carles Santos ¡Visca el piano! held at the Miro Foundation in the summer of 2006.

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).

Playback is presented as a short rehearsal in a double sense. It is a satellite of the constellation of works that Portabella dedicates to the analysis of the "materiality" of aesthetic and cultural languages (Vampir-Cuadecuc and Miró l`Altre among others can also be understood in this manner). At the same time, he analyzes the rehearsals that Carles Santos carries out for the playback recording of a film on the work of Antoni Gaudi. The choir of the Gran Teatro del Liceu of Barcelona reads fragments from Wagner`s Tannhauser, Lohengrin and the Valkyries. The film was shot in the theater "Lluïsos de Gràcia".

Ever since the 1960s, Pere Portabella involved himself in the movements against the Franco dictatorship and in support of liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution (1978). Since 2001, he has chaired the Fundación Alternativas. Before working as a director, with Films 59, he produced some of the most emblematic spanish films: Los golfos (1959) by Carlos Saura, El cochecito (1960) by Marco Ferreri and Viridiana (1961) by Luis Buñuel wich provoked a scandal that obliged him to move to Italy. In 1964, he wrote the screenplay for Il momento della verità with Francesco Rosi. He began directing in 1967 with No compteu amb els dits followed by his first feature-length film, Nocturno 29 (1968). Vampir-Cuadeduc (1970) is a key work in his filmography, togheter with Umbracle (1972), represents a phase of radical rupture with the production of those years and marked him as one of the most original forces in underground and avantgarde cinema of the time. After Informe General of 1976 he only returned to directing in 1989, with Pont de Varsòvia. In 2001, his films became part of the collection of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist to be invited to Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA) acquires a copy of Vampir-Cuadecuc and Die Stille vor Bach (2007).