PARAÍSO – AN ENCOUNTER WITH FINE ARTS STUDENTS
If we understand cinema to be an art (and we believe so at the Mostra festival), then it is among future artists that its seeds should be sown. This is how the Paraíso (Paradise) section came into being: a meeting among Fine Arts students who are beginning to experiment with the possibilities of the moving image; an exuberant space for discovery in which to meet and acknowledge each other.
HISTORY
In 2021, (S8) opened up a new space for teaching and new creation from the perspective of artistic training, focusing on the multidisciplinary, free approach of the Fine Arts. This is an alliance with universities that was set up with the idea of pointing out and blazing new trails in the future of the moving image.
To do so, the Mostra invited the students of the University of Cuenca’s Faculty of Fine Arts [GS1] to actively participate in the programme, as well as the University of Pontevedra’s Fine Arts Faculty[GS2] . The very young Galician artists met with artistic students from other parts of Spain within a space to make their unreleased works visible, to debate their visions, their goals and their demands for the audiovisual sphere.
2021 FESTIVAL
¿Quién soy? Auto-etnografías fílmicas de artista (Who am I? Film auto-ethnographies of an artist) provided an emotional journey through six personal films made by students from the University of Vigo’s Faculty of Fine Arts: Laura Cid Rascado, Marta Gil Silva, Valeria Martínez with Raquel Álvarez, Lili Lago, Claudia Pineda and Tamara Goberna.[GS3]
The (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico (Peripheral Cinema) festival was intended to act as a space of initiation through which to make a mark in the context of experimental cinema. That artistic stance as the basis enables them to create their works using the freedom of their profession. For this reason, their views are those of auteurs; they are intimate. They understand cinema as a form of artistic knowledge comparable to photography, artistic installations, performance or painting: disciplines that they also explore throughout their university course. They approach the audiovisual language through the plastic, the sculptural or the performative, or else they define themselves as video artists and are generally unaware of the avant-garde cinema scene. That is why this invitation to (S8) is necessary and timely.
So much is this the case that the result of this platform for visibility became evident in its first edition when the short film by Claudia Pineda was selected in 2COOL4SCHOOL at the Cannes Film Festival, where she presented her work El viaje (The journey), immediately after its premiere at (S8).
2022 FESTIVAL
What started out in 2021 as an exhibition or meeting among Fine Arts students beginning to experiment with the possibilities of the moving image (guided by teachers with exceptional sensitivity) became established in 2022 as a section of (S8) under the name “Paraíso” (“Paradise”). For the last edition in 2022 we were able to count on the participation of the Fine Arts Faculties of Vigo and Salamanca.
The University of Salamanca also provided participants with pieces by María Marlen, Sara Díaz, Natalia Pérez Novo, Lidia Rodríguez González, Lydia Paredes Vázquez, Verónica Alvez and Mirian Opazo. On behalf of the University of Vigo, the following also presented their work: César Souto, Andrea Núñez Pidre, Candela Conde, Maruxa Alonso Gago, Elio Salgueiro, Andrea San Miguel and Clara Borrazás.
The result of this platform for visibility is clear in the successes reaped by some of these pieces after their world premiere at the festival: O MARCO (THE FRAME) by Lydia Paredes Vázquez was selected at the DOMUS ARTIUM contemporary art centre to take part in the collective Expo for end-of-degree students; MEAT by Lidia Rodríguez González won the prize at the 25th San Marcos Awards for the best audiovisual work by a Fine Arts student; and RETRATOS DO SILENZO (PORTRAITS OF SILENCE) by Miriam Opazo won the best Video Creation award in the 13th Juventud Créela 2022 contest.
2023 FESTIVAL
In 2023, (S8) extended its Paraíso section to the international sphere by including students from France and Italy. The Faculties of Fine Arts at Salamanca and Pontevedra were also once again involved in this section.
Via open applications, all of them brought works by very young artists, which were presented by their creators to an international professional audience at the festival or mostra. By doing so, Paraíso creates a space for exchange between students and these internationally renowned professionals.
Furthermore, the 2023 festival marked the launch of a professional consultancy space, where students received personalised, direct tutoring in an intensive 4-hour session from renowned professionals such as Benjamín Ellemberger (Argentina), Giuseppe Spina (Italy), Giulia Mazzone (Italy), Albert Alzo (Spain), and María Cañas (Spain).
2024 FESTIVAL
Last year’s Paraíso included a joint session of 110 minutes in which students from the Universities of Vigo and Salamanca premiered their films at the Filmoteca de Galicia venue, presenting them in person to an international audience.
Moreover, that year (S8) offered the participating students in Paraíso the exclusive opportunity to take part in a practical workshop led by four of the most outstanding artists from Canada in their field: Franci Durán, Phil Hoffman, Rhayne Vermette, and Robin Riad. It was a practical exploration of cameraless animation techniques such as scratching, painting, collage, drawing and phytograms on 16 mm film. The techniques were presented, afterwards creating a collaborative, dynamic work of moving images that were shown in the evening’s screenings.
2025 FESTIVAL
That year, the Fine Arts faculties of the universities of Vigo (Pontevedra campus) and Salamanca repeated their experience, joined for the first time by the Complutense University of Madrid, with five artworks selected.
Habitar todos los mundos posibles (Inhabiting all possible worlds), Un crisol de destellos (A crucible of shimmers) and Reparar el dolor (Repair the pain) were the three titles that the films from each of the three participating faculties in Paraíso were grouped under. In total, there were fourteen pieces (five each from Pontevedra and Madrid, and four from Salamanca) that were projected with the creators and international programmers attending on Friday, 6th June at 11 a.m. at the Filmoteca de Galicia. In addition to this screening, the students got the chance to attend the masterclass given by Carlos Castillo on Saturday the 7th in the morning about Venezuelan avant-garde cinema. On Sunday, the last day of the festival, they took part in a gathering with students and artists where they were able to share their experience at (S8).
2026 FESTIVAL
In this year’s Paraíso, students will be participating from the Fine Arts Faculties of the universities of Vigo (Pontevedra campus), Salamanca and the Complutense University of Madrid.
El paraíso del fotograma expandido (The paradise of the expanded frame), Memoria, desarraigo y mito (Memory, uprooting and myth) and De lo personal a lo universal (From the personal to the universal) are the three film programmes, one for each university, that will be presented on Friday, 5th June at 11 a.m. at the Filmoteca de Galicia. These are the three titles that the films from each of the three participating faculties in Paraíso are grouped under. There are fifteen pieces in total (six from Pontevedra, five from Salamanca and four from Madrid).
In addition to this screening, students will be able to attend the masterclass “Founding a film library, founding a new canon” about the Kinothek Asta Nielsen, which since 1999 has been disseminating, documenting and researching films made by women and gay film culture from Germany.
On Sunday, the last day of the festival, the students in Paraíso will be taking part in a gathering with students and artists where they will be able to share their experience at (S8).