Programme 2

In this double feature, two film-makers consider how matter relates to the eye. As if guided by the words of Jane Bennett in her Vibrant Material: A Political Ecology of Things (which lends its title to one of the films in the programme), these films question the “habit of parsing the world into dull matter (it, things) and vibrant life (us, beings)”. In Ojitos mentirosos, Elena Duque roams the streets of Madrid discovering trompe l’oeil, fake palatial views painted on barren, smooth and sometimes windowless walls. These murals are revealed in contrast to the city, drawing possibilities over the nothingness to make the most of this unused material, providing the chance to have balconies, windows, flora and fauna of all types, blending actively into street life. Duque becomes possessed by the trompe l’oeil spirit in Madrid’s walls and leaves false clues in her images, reminding us that a film-maker sometimes plays the same game: planting things where they do not exist, placing beauty where there is usually little to rave about. She also depicts her fondness this way by including people who travel through the city with her doing their own thing. Madrid can also be seen in Materia vibrante, although that’s not all. What we see is a city which looks uniform but is actually a series of fragments of several cities. Little by little, those fragments begin to change, like tricks of the eye and overprinting transform how the city is seen just to share a ruse with us: everything in them is just as artificial as in the cinema. The film’s opening image seems to suggest the idea behind all of this: a sort of Roman arch surrounded by trees (perhaps a forest). This is nature desperately trying to live alongside humans when the change is already absolutely irreversible. Now the damage is done, it’s time to look at how these types of beings live together against the sky and earth: humans with their footprints, flora and fauna with their interstitial presence. There is beauty in this fateful encounter, and there is density in the astonishing and horrifying aspects of these views: a mountain covered in houses (or houses covered in mountain), glass buildings, water sources affected by lights from the traffic around them. The film explores the cracks in this terrible, yet fantastic fracture. 

Lucía Salas