Long still frames, text, language, and sound are woven together to unfold the narrative of an anonymous group who fill their time by measuring distance.

A captivating message for dark times

Music is there to be made 1

Void and music in the West

The Black Antisol - //Silence in the awakening of the worlds//

Invitation to the film-trance: Research project & Live Cinema with Vincent Moon

To interrupt the noise of the world, to be receptive, to listen, to open to the co-animation of the world.

An exploration, a week of sound encounters, with a live cinema or film trance session at the CC Convent Agustí.

Faced with the monotonous and maddening barbarism of the media and the networks that make us see without seeing, that simplify reality by reducing it to spectacular events and violence, Vincent Moon invites us to stop the machines and go out to meet each other.

To interrupt the noise of the world, not to escape from the horror of the ongoing war or from the clear perception of a civilisation advancing towards the abyss.

Vincent Moon , independent filmmaker and sound explorer, who has been travelling the world for twenty years, will spend a week travelling with us between Barcelona and the mountains of the Pyrenees, encountering known and unknown music, and an invisible art of living and resisting.

The way we show the world helps to change the way we see it, changing the way we look helps to change a world flooded with images.

Vincent Moon says: "I long to rediscover, to rework a link with ancestral tonalities and rhythms, forms of trance...". From the Dhikr (remembrance) of Sufi tariqas in Chechnya, Ethiopia or Turkey; to months in the interior of Brazil or Peru, or incursions in Jakarta, Argentina or Morocco: "A kind of experimental ethnography, trying to hybridise all these genres of trance and music in different parts of the world (...) I think we are recording to gain a certain complexity (...) To reinvent life today we have to elaborate new forms of imagery. And it's very simple. You have to go out into the encounter (...) You break down the barriers to the encounter with the body more than with knowledge. This is what travelling taught me, to trust the memory of the body more than the memory of the brain. Respect is a step forward.

A poetic approach to the everyday. Exploring rhythm and tonality in the sound and visual resonance between beings and elements and things.

"Encounter is the fundamental thing. Meeting people, like the Troubadours (...) Film is an excuse to create a very special moment in the present, in the reality of now".

The Australian Aborigines used to say that "everything slumbers beneath the surface of the earth waiting to be called". - On the acoustic and visionary journey with Vincent Moon we go out to meet voices that continue to sing among the ruins, calling into existence another life, another reality, another truth.

"When I arrive at a place, I ask myself what is important to film today?" - Vincent Moon's visit is twofold: on the one hand to explore some experiences that are "important to film today"; on the other hand, a moment of encounter and projection in Barcelona, with his Live Cinema or Film-Trance - sound and visual exploration.

Vincent Moon's work connects with one of the investigations opened at the Unidentified Video Observatory : Silence in the awakening of worlds . At first, this research started from taking the visionary experience seriously and investigating the ways in which it unfolds, through the cracks of this world, from Surrealism to the current decline of naturalist secularism. In a second moment, which we have called first, during the immersion in the materials: The Mirror of the Night ("Mirrors: no one has yet described, knowing it,/ What you are in your being,/ You, like interstices of time,/ Filled only with holes of sieve. / You, still wasters of the empty room,/ At the hour of twilight, vast as forests..."); and now, at the moment of exposure and encounter: The black anti sun , which starts from taking seriously Rilke's intuition in the Sonnets to Orpheus: "Gesang ist Dasein" (To sing is to exist) .   

«"But the great black anti-sols, wells of truth in the essential weft, in the grey veil of the curved sky, come and go and suck each other in, and people call them ABSENCES" (René Daumal).  These splendours, the aim of the human being is to collect them (...). And it is precisely by fighting against the inertia of the body and the sleep of the soul, by practising techniques of awakening - physical awakening, spiritual awakening - a kind of "long, immense and thoughtful alteration of all the senses", that allows us to overcome the material and spiritual order of this world, in short, by leading a counter-life» (Jacques Lacarrière, Les gnostiques ).

/ CONTEXT 1994 - 2020

This program in the form of an essay aims to shed light on some of the more disturbing aspects of contemporary life. Specifically, it looks at experiences involving conflict with power and at the imminent arrival of an even greater confrontation. A clash that exceeds the political realm and expands towards the notion of civilisation itself, and that seems to emanate from a source within the inner life of human beings.

Bearing this in mind, we present a series of screenings that look further than the immediacy of recent events, the logic of action-reaction, and the persistent notion of the other as intrinsically negative, in order to take a step back and observe from a distance that allows reflection.

We convey this vision through a programme with a dual core: La Commune by Peter Watkins, and The Mahabharata by Peter Brook, which we have contextualised with a series of documentaries and other documents that show contemporary expressions of the central theme.

La Commune offers a vision of contemporary conflict that transcends political oblivion. A cinematic reflection that looks back to a historical milestone – the emergence and disappearance of the 1871 Paris Commune and, at the same time, questions our own social reality and its representation in the media, given that Watkins chose to work with non-actors, people who express the actual conditions of their lives in Paris in 1999.

We will screen this film in three parts, each followed by a discussion session led by members of Rebond La Commune , the group that was created as a result of the making of this film.

Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata also deals with conflict but rather than taking a historical approach it positions itself outside of history, outside of linear time. It plays out in mythical time, the time of constant return and of the dialectic tension between the oblivion and remembrance of true human nature. The Mahabharata presents this conflict on several levels – linked to politics (power), civilisation, and the survival of life on Earth –, but also as an expression of the inner struggle that is fought out within every human being.

Each of the three parts of The Mahabharata will be preceded by excerpts from a conversation that we recorded with Jean-Claude Carrière, the screenwriter in charge of the theatrical adaptation of Brook's The Mahabharata , in which we explore the keys to this work in relation to the notions of conflict and oblivion.

This story is about you

The programme begins by following the course of the Mahabharata, an immense poem that flows with the majesty of a great river, which is full of “inexhaustible riches, defies all analysis, whether structural, thematic, historical or psychological. Doors are continually opening, which lead onto other doors. The Mahabharata cannot be held in the hollow of one’s hand. There are many ramifications. Sometimes seemingly contradictory, they succeed each other and intertwine, but we never lose the central theme of a looming threat, to which everything starkly points. We are living in a time of destruction. The question is, can we avoid it?” (1)

Against this background, from its very first lines, the Mahabharata takes us on an inner journey of knowledge and transformation.

• What is the poem about?

• It is about you. It is the story of your race. How your ancestors were born. How they grew. How vast war arose. It is the poetical history of mankind. If you listen carefully, at the end you will be someone else. (2)

  The illusion of power

The story gradually introduces us into a confrontation between the Pandava and the Kaurava . A confrontation that is a battle for power, although it arises from two almost opposite conceptions of life. With all their nuances and ambivalence, we see the Pandava proceed in accordance with their quest to fulfil the dharma , while the Kaurava seem to be guided only by desire and fear: the desire to possess power and the fear of losing it. They do not hesitate to use all possible means to achieve their end, they respect no limits whatsoever. And they act with the complicity of their parents, a blind king and a queen who voluntarily blindfolds herself.

Then the two sides play a game of dice, as a way of representing and temporarily avoiding direct conflict; but it is also a frame-up. The game is rigged – power play is always rigged. There can only be one outcome: defeat and the loss of everything they own, even their freedom. The Pandava face a future of exile and war.

In the present day, this rigged game takes on shapes and names that often hide its true purpose: to create a reality that is tailored to the private interests of a few. This is the case of so-called “free trade”, for example, which is supposedly a fair game in the sphere of economics. But the unequal terms of its participants and the non-reciprocal nature of the rules mean that it is inherently based on a desire for supremacy. Other examples disguise the obvious corporate and entrepreneurial nature of some social networks, and of many digital tools that barely hide their dark underside of control. And so we dwell in a realm of appearances: we appear to choose, we appear to communicate, we appear to be safe, thanks to a dense network of social devices. But inadvertently, when we comply with the daily ritual of submission to our work, to the educational and health system, to culture and to entertainment, we are signing a silent contract:

I accept competition as the foundation of our system, even though I am aware that it generates frustration and anger for the majority of those who lose. I agree to be humiliated and exploited in exchange for being allowed to humiliate and exploit those on a lower rung of the social pyramid (...)"

I accept that, in the name of peace, the largest Government expense will be Defence (...) I agree to be served up negative and terrifying news from around the world every day, so that I can ascertain the extent to which our situation is normal. (3)

Obviously, failure to sign “the contract” entails various increasing forms of exclusion. In view of this situation, protest can easily be channelled through the realm of appearance and made to give up its transformative power. But if protest tries to become real it will be stigmatised as sectarian, aggressive and violent, regardless of the means and ends it chooses.

Del Poder (“On Power”), the documentary by Zaván, focuses precisely on this aspect: the moment at which power reveals its true nature, beyond the fine names that it adopts to protect and legitimise its actions. This moment of revelation when power shows its true face comes about when it turns to the violence of repression. Genoa, 2001, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protest on the streets. It is not an isolated event, the movement has been gaining strength, in Seattle in 1999, in Prague in 2000, and it is starting to represent a possibility for change… The “authorities” shield the city. They fence in entire neighbourhoods and suspend the Schengen treaty, to protect the summit of the heads of the world’s eight most powerful states. According to police trade union sources, they deliberately plan for a scenario of extreme violence, without ruling out the possibility that people may be killed (4). Police violence is unleashed, people are beaten indiscriminately. There are soon casualties, hundreds of them, some of people in comma. The situation quickly becomes a trap for the protesters, to such an extent that Amnesty International declares it “the greatest violation of human rights in Italy’s history since World War II.” Carlo Guiliani is killed by two shots to the head; the Commissioner who is tried for his murder is subsequently absolved. Far from reigning in the police violence, this death seems to stimulate it and give it its true meaning. The repression continues undiminished during the days that follow. De

From 4th to 6th November

Decolonizing Vision  - Migrant Knowledge

To decolonize vision would be to return it, to integrate it into the body and the other senses, to integrate it into place, its forces and emptiness... to rescue it from the tyranny of the merely optical and open it up to the “other eyes” of the body and the mind, to make it whole. Also, to open up dialogue with the power of vision that the dominant culture in the West excluded or dissected until it was extinguished.

Toni Serra *) Abu Ali

The selection of videos presented in the Migrant Knowledge project puts forward alternative constructions of thought, analysis, and reflection concerning migrations. It does so through a plurality of views, experiences, memories, and stories that converge in a three-day program live at the Centre Civic Can Felipa, and a two-week online audio-visual menu, based on a selection of videos from the Archives OVNI – Observatory of Unidentified Video.

In the face of an understanding of multiculturalism as a space that is predefined and negotiated by power, the institution, and violence, the “other” is partitioned and enclosed. Thus, it is increasingly urgent and necessary to come together and exchange knowledge and experiences so as to bring about a profound transformation of the notions that have shaped the globalized world. This entails a radical redefinition of the notions of time, work, culture, and of the persistence of a single model with totalitarian tendencies. To start a process of decolonization by deconstructing and transforming the notions and beliefs that have shaped our societies.

Modern colonialism is not only a historical phenomenon, it is primarily an attitude towards life and the world. A way of looking that divides and dissects all things, a way of looking that creates and projects ”otherness”, and sees it as a space to be occupied: as territory, culture, even time, to be colonized. By its very nature it can neither understand nor put into practice an organic unity of things, or of life, let alone of economics. It perpetually needs the “other”, to the point of severing it from itself.

The selected program of videos includes resistances from various origins and languages, which are deployed against the imposition of single, hegemonic thought. Stories that make it possible to think, to build other worlds and to discover existing ones that are often hidden by screens of ignorance and prejudice, and by stereotyped images of the “other.”

The video selection is curated by Toni Cots. The program is organized by Jiser and the OVNI Archives, and is part of the process of reflection carried out by the Migrant Knowledge collective.

Jiser, which means “bridge” in Arabic, is a non-profit association based in Barcelona, whose objective is to promote artistic creation and the use of art as a tool for social transformation in the Euro-Mediterranean space, by carrying out activities that promote the exchange and rapprochement between different artistic and cultural realities in the region.

The OVNI Archives compile and document a three-decade history, from analog video to digital video in the time of ‘social’ networks. The materials contained in the Archives are the result of various thematic research projects, a whole constellation of titles with the common denominator of free expression and reflection on individual and collective fears and pleasures, coming together to build a multi-faceted vision, like thousands of small eyes that deepen and explore our world, or announce other possible ones. A research process in which the main values are heterogeneity, contradiction, and the subjectivity that the Archives spring from. In itself, they are an antidote for cloning and repetition in the era of hyper-connectivity.

Migrant Knowledge is a group made up of activists, artists and researchers who bring their diverse experience and background to a process of critical and collective reflection on the symbolic and institutional violence that affects migrants and/or racialized people. It aims to create communal spaces that draw attention to and fight against the mechanisms that legitimize the exercise of this violence, and create narratives of resistance that support the right for people who migrate to have rights.

This process is woven together by connecting artistic practice and reflection. It is open to a plurality of stories, and it is flexible in its path... It defends not only the exercise of critical consciousness, but also the carrying out of actions that transform situations of discrimination, racism, and inequality.

Thursday, 4th November 18:30h - 21:00h

VIOLENCE <> RESISTANCE

London "I don't call it rioting, I call it an insurrection"

BBC, 2011. UK, VO Eng 5Min.

An interview with writer and local resident Darcus Howe on the events that took place in London in 2011. "Have some respect for an old West Indian 'negro' " "I don't call it rioting, I call it an insurrection...of the masses of the people!»

Göran Hugo Olsson, 2014. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, USA, VO English,  85Min.

An archive-driven documentary covering the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, as well as an exploration into the mechanisms of decolonization through text fragments from Frantz Fanon’s T he Wretched of the Earth .

Friday, 5 November 18:30h - 21:00h

Le problème algérien et l'economie française

Jean Pierre Gambarotta, 2006. VO French. 5Min.

A French government report explaining the reasons why it was impossible to accept Algeria’s independence.

Pierre-Yves Vandeweed 2011.Belgium, Western Sahara. VO Arab, 74Min.

Drawing from stories of flight, exile, interminable waiting and arrest, and persecuted lives on both sides of the wall that divides the Western Sahara, Territoire perdu bears witness to the Sahrawi people, their land and their entrapment in other people’s dreams. The film juxtaposes sonorous landscapes, black-and-white portraits and nomadic poetics.

Session in collaboration with the Barcelona Independent Film Festival, l'Alternativa.

Lettre à la Republique