Cinema

16h00: "Color Sound Frames" (1974) de Paul Sharits (Auditorium)

17h00: Guillaume Cailleau & Werner Dafeldecker "Resonator II" (Auditorium)

18h30: Billy Roiz (Auditorium)

The third and final day will start with "Color Sound Frames" (1974) – the film by Paul Sharits that lends its title to this program at Serralves. Sharits was one of the pioneering artists of experimental cinema. Influenced by structuralist theory, he was one of the first artists to radically explore the intersection between the techniques of painting and film. "Color Sound Frames" is about the mechanism of film and results from experiments with the superimposition of different directions and speeds of film and projection. This results in the creation of overlaps, fusions, as well as of visual and sound patterns. It is also, and primarily, a film about the sensations and effects of illusion that these methodical operations cause in the viewer.

"Resonator II", the second work to be presented by the duo, Cailleau / Dafeldecker is based on the transfer or transcription of certain material and spatial interventions - such as acoustic patterns and the manipulation of film leftovers and chemical vestiges - into digital media. The once tangible material is virtualized. Through live manipulation, visual and sonorous compositions arise in resonance as electronic entity, reminiscent of its analogue genealogies. 

The program ends with the Portuguese premiere of Billy Roisz, in a solo performance. Roisz is one of the most respected figures in European experimental art scene. Since the late 1990s, she has developed an outstanding work exploring the translation of experimental music into images, using tactics inspired by minimalist and conceptual art. Resorting to the interchange/unity of the electromagnetic signal generated by the machines that create images or sounds, she questions the interaction between sound and image, between visual and auditory perceptions.

Roisz presents her work in live performances, screenings and multimedia installations. She has worked with various artists, including musicians such as Martin Brandlmayr, eRikm or Ilpo Väisänen (of Pansonic) and has presented her works in some of the world’s most important art centers, museums and festivals.

17h00: Greg Pope w/ Joachim Nordwall "Cipher Screen” (Auditorium)

18h30: Guillaume Cailleau & Werner Dafeldecker "Resonator I" (Library)

19h00: Le Révélateur (Auditorium)

The second day of SOUND COLOR FRAMES kicks off with "Cipher Screen" by Greg Pope, a key figure in current experimental cinema and the historical founder of British collectives dedicated to experimental cinema - in particular Situation Cinema and Loophole Cinema. "Cipher Screen" is a live art piece using 2 prepared 16mm film projectors with black film loops and a live sound feed. This work harnesses the mechanisms of film and cinema; the projector, the film material, the darkened room and synchronized sound - creating a live score and a visual and sonic interaction. 

The constant, reductive physical process applied to the surface of the film loops results in a slow transformation on the screen surface. The marks of the actions imprinted on the film loops are constantly accumulated and rhythmically revealed via flakes of light and abstract shapes. The sound of the projectors is complemented by the percussive sound of the marks that Pope imprints on the film’s optical sound track. These sounds are processed live by the musicians invited to collaborate on the project. The performance at Serralves will present of a new partnership with Joachim Nordwall - a prominent figure of the Nordic experimental music scene, founder of the well-known ritualistic rock band, Skull Defekts, and collaborator of musicians such as Mats Gustafsson and Mika Vainio.

  

The duo formed by the multimedia artist Guillaume Cailleau and musician Werner Dafeldecker is visiting Portugal for the first time, to present two different projects. On Saturday 21 November, "Resonator I" will be shown - a short performance dedicated to the analogue, physical, handmade and live. Tangible frequency-beatings are wrapped into an envelope of stereo film projection. The sound is accomplished by function-generators in constant elevation, allowing to transcend into a different space-time. Two super 8mm projectors create vibrating visual spaces, clusters of pulsing  colors and interfering frequencies of light.

Cailleu’s work ranges between collages, 16mm films and HD video, multimedia installations and audiovisual performances. His artistic research focuses especially on common day-to-day processes and occurrences, in an attempt to expose details that tend to be undervalued or overlooked. In this context, Cailleau likes to provoke and challenge limits, and for this reason collaborates with other artistic fields, such as music, graphic design, science or theatre. He has often worked with Werner Dafeldecker. In addition to his partnership in live performances, Dafeldecker also composes soundtracks for Cailleau’s films, e.g. "LABORAT", a short film that received the Silver Bear, Jury Prize at the Berlin Film International Festival, in 2014.

Werner Dafeldecker is one of the most active members of the Berlin-based community of musicians, composers and sound artists dedicated to experimental music and sound. His main instrument is the double bass, and he has also carried out numerous projects in the field of electroacoustic music. His music is often derived from, and inspired by, external influences, such as architecture, science, photography and cinema – partly resulting in the creation of graphic scores for various ensembles and instrumentalists, and also in trans-disciplinary collaborations.

The project LE RÉVÉLATEUR is clearly inspired by the performative tradition that combines electronic sound and video art. The live performance is the result of an intermedial dialogue between video artist Sabrina Ratté and electronic music composer Roger Tellier-Craig. Through the creation of abstract architectural structures and electronic landscapes, Ratté’s video images are in constant dialogue with the ethereal sounds and futuristic pulses generated by Tellier-Craig. Together, they aim to create an immersive audio-visual experience where sound and image are inseparable. This Canadian duo has been presenting the project at major international festivals - such as Mutek (in Montreal and Mexico City) or the Sonic Acts (Amsterdam) and will now debut in Portugal.

22h00: Theo Burt (Auditorium)

23h00: Pedro Maia & Shxcxchcxsh (Auditorium)

The Portuguese premiere of the project Theo Burt’s "Colour Projections” by Theo Burt inaugurates the program Color Sound Frames. In line with Burt’s special interest in destabilizing the experience of time and producing ambivalences that defy our expectations of cause and effect as well as conflicts of values that shape our thoughts and actions, the artist has created a series of geometric systems in which the layout of the configurations is directly transformed into sound waves, but using a progression that, although apparently simple, mysteriously diverges from the expected. 

Highly regarded in the international artistic community, Theo Burt has gradually consolidated his solo career and has fostered collaborations with several renowned artists in different areas, such as Richard Sides or Lorenzo Senni. The latter released Burt’s most recent album "Gloss" (2015) via his publishing label, Presto!?.

Following their world premiere in October, in the 2015 edition of the renowned festival Unsound, in Krakow, Pedro Maia and the Swedish duo Shxcxchcxsh are bringing their newly formed collaboration to Serralves. Known for his exploration of analogue film, Maia will present the project, "Imperfect Film", that pays tribute to celluloid film - the main raw material used by cinema during its first century of existence – offering an exploration of both its qualities and limitations. Based on images collected in 16mm films, damaged by the passage of time, the experience of cinema is brought back to its essentials: light and movement. 

The duo Shxcxchcxsh has been widely praised and applauded by the specialized media (for instance, Resident Advisor and Pitchfork) due to its particular form of techno, generated from a sensitive and complex approach to this style of dance music, based on elements of noise, glitch, drone, broken beats and heavy industrial beats. The duo is now departing from its complete orientation towards the club scene, and in dialogue with Maia’s films, is now undertaking more atmospheric explorations. The duo will present improvisations with drones, ambient sounds and other yet unknown elements, which will emerge in the next album.

‘I wanted to show the beauty of a woman who is sacrificed and humiliated’. Manoel de Oliveira

Francisca is played by Teresa Meneses, the last heroine of the ‘tetralogy of frustrated loves’. Oliveira adapted Agustina de Bessa-Luís’ novel Fanny Owen, based on true facts (nineteenth century Porto, the intellectual and bohemian circle of which Camilo Castelo Branco was part). Francisca/Fanny is a young girl who is disputed by two friends and rivals — Camilo and José Augusto. She marries the latter, in a relationship that is never consummated. 

Alfreda is a young aristocrat obsessed with the idea that she will see an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Suffering from a serious illness, Alfreda seeks support from a priest, a nun and an English teacher. However a plan is concocted to satisfy Alfreda’s desire and ‘relieve’ her of some of her money. Adapted from Agustina Bessa-Luís’ novel A Alma dos Ricos, it follows the story of Touro Azul, the main character of The Uncertainty Principle.

Ever since their childhood, António, a rich young man from a noble family, and José, the son of a maid, have shared everything, guarded by their protective gaze. As adults, their amorous games have intensified this closeness: António marries Camila, with whom José had always been in love, and his lover is Vanessa, José’s partner in his murky business dealings. Adapted from Agustina Bessa-Luís’ novel Joia de Família, it is the first part of an unfinished trilogy, of which the second chapter is Magic Mirror.

Professor Michael Padovic is an American researcher working on a thesis that aims to prove Shakespeare came from Spain and not from England. But he lacks some essential documents, which he thinks are kept in the archives of the ancient Convent of Arrábida, in Portugal. For this reason, he leaves Paris with his wife, Hélène, to do some research at the convent. They are greeted by a strange host, Baltar. Their stay becomes extremely bizarre and ends unexpectedly.

The Day of Despair tells the true story of the Portugal’s most distinguished nineteenth century writer Camilo Castelo Branco. This evocation is fundamentally based on several of his letters. The texts, one could say, guide us through the dramatic evolution of a virile, controversial and romantic man, and his fateful, unstable and obstinate spirit. Camilo plunges headlong into an intimate conflict, or rather an inner conflict; ‘a personified drama’, as Fernando Pessoa would say. 

Before, the short film The Old Man of Belém, an unhampered and desperate dive into History as we know it. On a park bench in the twenty-first century, Oliveira brings together Don Quixote, the poet Luís Vaz de Camões, and novelists Joaquim Pereira Teixeira de Pascoaes and Camilo Castelo Branco, carried along by telluric waves of thought.

‘After all, we are the ones who compose the great human comedy that I call The Divine Comedy: pleasure for life, sex as an idol, power as supreme ambition, and death as the limitation of everything; or the acceptance of suffering and resurrection as true glory!? Here is the dilemma. Ultimately a historical film or, if you prefer, a parable about Western civilization’.

Manoel de Oliveira

Gilbert Valence is a theatre actor. Talent and a long career have landed him a number of brilliant parts. But one evening right after the show, tragedy enters his life: his agent and old friend Georges tells him that his wife, his daughter and his son-in-law have just died in a car crash. Time passes, life returns to normal. Gilbert starts sharing his time between his grandson, whom he adores, and the theatre. But the day an American director proposes a role in an adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, he enthusiastically accepts. However, Gilbert Valence hesitates and forgets some of his lines. He feels the ground slipping away from under his, stops and says very quietly: ‘I'm going home…’

This film will be presented with Portuguese subtitles. 

The documentary begins with a car ride through the streets of old Porto, in which the director Manoel de Oliveira recalls a walk home with his mother at night, after seeing a play. From Batalha, they walked through the Rua 31 de Janeiro, Mouzinho da Silveira, and the Marginal riverfront road towards Cais da Pedra, then ascended Rua D. Pedro V... The director recalls the city as it used to be, by looking at photographs and engravings (of public or family houses or places). He then contrasts these memories with modern-day houses and places.

Despite living on the brink of poverty, Gebo continues his work as an accountant to support his wife, Doroteia, and his daughter-in-law, Sofia. These three persons’ lives are sad and monotonous, focused on the absence of João, the son. Nobody knows where he is or why he left. Although the old man tries to find ways to ease the suffering of the two women, it seems like nothing can minimize their pain. Until, when nobody expected it, João returns. And from that moment, the family balance, already fragile, collapses, causing a catastrophe.

In an inclined street of a popular Lisbon quarter, Alfama, an old blind man has lost his box, where he keeps the charity alms. All he keeps in that old box painted with the mysterious initials ABLE, one can say that it is all that he can live from. The blind man’s daughter, always distracted with the housework, falls into a pile of clothes that she washes for her clients. Her unemployed husband (like most of his friends), lives from the blind man alms and from her wife work. When the charity-box disappears, it all ends in a violent, almost tragic, conflict. But every cloud has a silver lining… 

Faithful adaptation of Camilo Castelo Branco’s most famous novel: the impossible love of Simão Botelho and Teresa de Albuquerque, due to family rivalries, crossed with the resigned devotion of Mariana for Simão. A story set in the nineteenth century inspired by real people, from Camilo’s own family, who were imprisoned in the Cadeia da Relação in Porto, where his uncle Simão had also been incarcerated. The characters of Teresa and Mariana are played by two ‘ephemeral actresses of Portuguese cinema’: Cristina Hauser and Elsa Wallenkamp.

‘The idea of life as a process of repetition and rehearsal, of art as a rehearsal of life, began to form in my mind’. 

Manoel de Oliveira

A film entirely shot in a theatre, in which successive characters take to the stage and expose "their case" (based on a text by José Régio), in an action that is also repeated successively. Four versions of the same story, first from the perspective of a stage play, second from the perspective of a silent film, the third as in a 1950s film and finally from a biblical philosophical perspective.  

This film will be presented with Portuguese subtitles. 

‘Benilde’s unusual case revolves around a family, which is an institution in its own right. I recall a teacher from the provinces, who told me, in a very realistic interpretation, restricted to concrete aspects, that everything in the play resulted from an old-fashioned, austere and rigorous education’. 

Manoel de Oliveira

Set in 1930s in a secluded manor house in Alentejo: the owner’s young daughter is pregnant, but swears she has had no contact with any man, and attributes her state to supernatural intervention. Benilde’s mysterious pregnancy inspires a mixture of wonder and suspicion amongst the guests. The second film in the so-called ‘tetralogy of frustrated love’, Benilde or the Virgin Mother is a faithful adaptation of the play by José Régio and marked Oliveira’s international consecration as a film director.  

Leonor and Rogério have been married for ten years. Leonor arranges a garden-party on her palace’s garden. Two friends, a famous Greek actress of a certain age, accompanied by her lover Michel, an inveterate ladies’ man, join them. Michel, true to his reputation, tries to seduce Leonor and begins to court this elegant, seductive and lively young woman. The whirlwind of emotions revolves around words… and feelings. And this is evident to all, to both Leonor’s husband and Michel’s lover, even though they appear to be just spending a fun afternoon. The sudden eruption of a violent storm puts an end to their inner confusion, and their attentions disperse.

This film will be presented with portuguese subtitles.

‘It is a theatrical text of black humour and elegant dialogue, of disturbing ambiguity, which can provoke perplexity and hesitation, since it is not possible to understand whether the author is playing and poking fun, or is being serious’. 

Manoel de Oliveira

Adaptation of Vicente Sanches’ play on the lack of communication within the upper bourgeoisie. The action takes place in a manor house in Portalegre: Vanda is a young woman who despised her husbands while alive and then venerates them after their death.