ANALOGUE FILM WORKSHOP IN CORME
CINEMA AND PHOTOGRAPHY WITH NO CAMERA: FROM ORGANIC TO MECHANICAL
DIDÁCTICA
As part of the Mostra de Cinema Periférico (S8) festival, this new workshop in Corme invites us to explore the broad and fascinating terrain of cinema and cameraless photography. Headed by Deneb Martos, a visual artist specializing in experimental practices on celluloid, the workshop provides a practical and poetic immersion into the physical, chemical and luminous possibilities of photosensitive media. Held over seven days in the natural environs of the village of Corme, the workshop is designed to be an intense, transformative experience. Beyond the technical side of learning, the shared work in an immersive environment helps foster an exchange of ideas, attentive listening, and collective creation, creating a deep connection with the sphere and creative processes.
During the sessions, we will look at the historical and contemporary techniques of cameraless filmmaking, paying special attention to two core areas of work: the technique of flat printing in the darkroom and the creation of water rayograms at night, by the seashore. We shall also explore how alchemy and visual creation intersect via practices such as coloured chemigrams, phytograms, and preparing sustainable developers from phenols extracted from plants gathered locally. The workshop will also include a brief overview of the works and procedures of artists and filmmakers who have worked physically on the surface of celluloid with different approaches: from material aggression (scratches, discolouration, the use of bleach) to pictorial treatment, collage compositions or experiments based on the sensorial and on the material. We will be working with photographic paper and 35 mm and 16 mm film, and we will have analogue projectors to visualize both the processes and the outcomes in shared sessions that will clearly show the transformation from organic to mechanical through light.
This experience is part of eSe8_LAB, the space that (S8) dedicates to training, fostering, supporting, researching and developing, concentrating on film projects with collaboration from the Galician Government’s Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais.
- DATES: From 7 to 13 July, 2025
- PLACES AVAILABLE: 7
- REGISTRATION: Until 16 June
DENEB MARTOS
An alchemist, visual artist and creator, Martos specializes in cameraless photography and filmmaking, using traditional and sustainable techniques. Her work has appeared in events such as FILMADRID, the KONTAKTE ’17 Festival (Berlin), the MUTA Festival (Lima) and Punto de Vista (Pamplona), as well as in the (S8) festival itself, with which she has been collaborating for years.
Martos was a founder member and for two decades the head of the PHOTO LAB at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, and she currently coordinates LAV, the Audiovisual Laboratory for Contemporary Creation and Practice. She collaborates with cultural institutions such as the Cerezales Foundation (FCAYC), the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Spanish Film Library (Filmoteca Española), and the Cine Estudio de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Studio Cinema) in Madrid. She combines this work with the profession of analogue film projectionist for various festivals and institutions.
Her work includes titles such as Gold Film (2014–2019), Licht-Allegorien (2017), Skin Film (2020), Dionysus me miró a los ojos (2021), Rayogramas de agua (2022), KOSMOGONÍA (2023) and Ser hongo (en proceso), working with analogue projection devices, exposing the physical phenomenon of the image and converting it into a record of an emanation of lights and shadows whose direct dialogue with the materials printed onto celluloid highlights its haptic qualities, denoting atavistic traces and remains. By means of this process, matter is transformed into energy, a human medium that progressively changes towards mechanical vibration. These artworks fall into the tradition of cameraless cinema and take on the quality of an object due to their installation-like and sculptural characteristics, thus becoming a corporeal object.
