Robert Fenz, Pedro G. Romero, Forensic Architecture and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Artists in Focus at Punto de Vista 2021

American filmmaker Robert Fenz, artist and curator Pedro G. Romero, research agency Forensic Architecture and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan are to feature in this year's Focos contemporáneos (Artists in Focus) at Punto de Vista. Artists in Focus presents monographic programmes artists working on moving image who are rarely exhibited on the context of non-fiction film festivals. Filmmakers and artists like Guy Sherwin, Marie Losier, César Vayssié, Tacita Dean, Francys Alÿs and Iván Argote, among others, have been part of this Punto de Vista section, which this year highlights the work of Fenz, G. Romero, Forensic Architecture and Abu Hamdan.

Robert Fenz

Robert Fenz (Ann Arbor, 1969-2020) was a distinctive filmmaker who managed to re-interpret the connection between places and ephemeral, untold stories in his work. His notion of film defied the dominant perceptions of this art. His film work reveals his inspiration in the street photography of the fifties and sixties. For Fenz, film did not need sound to give a voice to these unwritten chapters of revolutionary change in the world that so fascinated him. While most of Fenz's films are silent, his passion for jazz inspired the soundtracks of key films, including Vertical Air and Meditations on Revolution Part V: Lonely City. The latter is considered his masterpiece, a film made up of five parts that travel around the world to places charged with sweeping changes in the Americas of the last century, creating a lyrical, sombre and thoughtful chronicle of humanity's limited potential to make the world a better place. Robert Fenz was a virtuoso filmmaker who worked on projects together with figures like Chantal Akerman, Peter Hutton, Sharon Lockhart and Robert Gardner, famous artists whose own work contains the unrecognised influence of Robert Fenz.

The Punto de Vista programme includes screenings of the films Vertical Air (1996), Meditations on Revolution, Part I: Lonely Planet (1997), Meditations on Revolution, Part V: Foreign City (2003), Correspondence (2011) and The Sole of the Foot (2011). Robert Fenz's programs, curated by Haden Guest, are presented in collaboration with Harvard Film Archives.


Pedro G. Romero

Pedro G. Romero (Aracena, 1964) is a multi-faceted artist, critic, art historian, writer and artistic director of dance and theatre, as well as a film director. He is a flamenco fan, something he highlights over other ways of doing things. As well as in theatres and art galleries, his work has been exhibited at the Fundaciò Antoni Tápies, CA2M, the Barcelona Picasso museum, MNCARS, the Venice Biennale, the Stuttgart Kunstverein, the Sao Paulo Biennial, Bergen Assembly and Documenta in Kassel. He is a founder member of pie.flamenca, Plataforma Independiente de Estudios Flamencos Modernos y Contemporáneos.

The Festival will include screenings of two feature-length films by Pedro G. Romero: La Pel.lícula (2005) and his latest film, Nueve Sevillas (2020), made together with Gonzalo García Pelayo. Also featured is a selection of short films by the artist, presented by him together with artist and choreographer Idoia Zabaleta, with whom he will be in conversation, taking these films as a starting point.


Forensic Architecture + Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Artists in Focus will close the programme with the agency Forensic Architecture and the artist and sound researcher Lawrence Abu Hamdan.

Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based in Goldsmiths, University of London, which works on human rights violations, including violence committed by states, police forces, armies and companies. FA works together with institutions throughout civil society, from grassroots activists to legal teams, including international NGOs and media organisations, to conduct investigations with and for communities and people affected by conflicts, police brutality, border regimes and environmental violence. Punto de Vista is to feature Nicholas Zembashi, who will present the Points of View session.

For his part, artist and sound researcher Lawrence Abu Hamdan, who also works with Forensic Architecture, will run an encounter where he will go into the political effects of listening, using different kinds of audio to explore their effects on human rights and law. Abu Hamdan is the author of the artist's book [inaudible]: A Politics of Listening in 4 Acts. In 2018 he won the Abraaj Group Art Prize (Dubai) and the Baloise Art Prize (Basel). His short Rubber Coated Steel won a Tiger award at the Rotterdam international film festival in 2017. Abu Hamdan's work appears in many collections in international museums, including MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Hammer L.A, Van Abbe Museum, the Centre Pompidou and the Tate Modern.