Erice / Kiarostami

The exhibition brings together Víctor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami, two figures of filmic reference, in a dialogue about their creative concerns: the transparency of filming, the search for and recording of reality, and so on.

Erice and Kiarostami are probably two of the world’s most respected film-makers thanks to their integrity, to the clear gaze of their cinema, to the revolutionary gesture of returning to the beginnings to continue to advance, to their insistence on filming what happens in front of the camera, delving into the origins of cinema to offer a lesson about commitment to what is real.

We started out from the hypothesis that a meeting between these two filmmakers was possible. Both accepted the invitation with enthusiasm, and this exhibition showcases their coming-together.

Curated by French film critic Alain Bergala and Jordi Balló, Director of Exhibitions of the CCCB, this show will include specific materials by both authors, including various photographic works centring on common themes such as childhood and signs in nature. But it is also seen as an opportunity for exchange and dialogue, as a kind of filmed correspondence in which the two directors send each other sequences about their most immediate reality, one based in Madrid and San Sebastian, the other in Teheran and the north of Iran, thereby constructing a new filmic reality that finds its most profound significance in the context of the exhibition.

Other possible aspects are being considered for inclusion, such as Erice in a state-run school in Madrid and Kiarostami in another in Teheran working with children to produce short unedited films with a view to recovering the ingenuity of the transparent gaze.

This is unquestionably a high-profile, ground-breaking project, marked by the demands and the brilliance of two guest artists who are called upon to dialogue in a space that is not their usual scope—an exhibition that will construct an impossible dialogue using the habitual mechanism of traditional cinema.

Curators: Alain Bergala and Jordi Balló Produced by: CCCB and Casa Encendida (Madrid)

Pressetext

Erice / Kiarostami
Victor Erice, Abbas Kiarostami

Kuratoren: Alain Bergala, Jordi Ballo
Produktion: CCCB - Centre de Cultura Contemporània Barcelona
; La Casa Encendida, Madrid