ÚRSULA SAN CRISTÓBAL

(Spain - Espanha)

ÚRSULA SAN CRISTÓBAL - is an intermedia artist and researcher devoted to experimental music, performance art, video art, weaving, and calligraphy. With an academic background in music (MA in Hispanic Music from the University of Valladolid, Spain; MA in Musicology from the University of Milan, Italy, and a BA in Early Music from Scuola Civica di Musica di Milano), she later specialised in contemporary art and audiovisual media. Ursula holds a PhD in Art History and Musicology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her dissertation on the role of sound and music in video art and performance art works by Marina Abramović and Shirin Neshat received the Extraordinary PhD Award in 2020.

She has been a guest artist at Videoformes 2023 (Clermont-Ferrand, France) and artist in residence at Fabra i Coats (Barcelona, 2023) and Nau Estruch (Sabadell, 2021). Her video art work has been screened internationally in festivals such as the Video Art and Animation Biennale of Puebla (Mexico), Festival Les Instants Vidéo (France), Camagüey International Video Art Festival (Cuba), Magmart Video Under Vulcano (Italy), BIDEODROMO International Experimental Film and Video Festival (Spain), Mostra Viva del Mediterrani de Valencia (Spain), Miami New Media Festival, Traverse Vidéo (France), FILE – Electronic Language International Festival (Brazil), Video Art Miden (Greece), Media Art Biennale WRO 2021 (Poland), ASOLO Art Film Festival 2023 (Italy), and MADATAC XII (Spain). She has received several recognitions, including an honorable mention at the 36th Girona Film Festival 2024 (Spain) for her video "Radically alive" and a special mention at the Ibrida festival 2023 (Italy) for her video "Inexpressible".

Ursula is professor of music in audiovisual media at Esmuc (Catalonia College of Music) and a professor of music aesthetics, communication and research methodology at Taller de Músics (College of jazz and modern music) in Barcelona.

2-1S  UN SOUVENIR À DEMI RÊVÉ (A HALF-DREAMED MEMORY) - Úrsula San Cristóbal   1ª SESSÃO | 1st SESSION

IMAGE PLAY ► International Video Art Festival - VI Edition 2024 (Funchal, Madeira - Portugal)

CREDITS:

Úrsula San Cristóbal  Director

SYNOPSIS:

UN SOUVENIR À DEMI RÊVÉ (A HALF-DREAMED MEMORY): "It's an image I'm chasing for, nothing else." Gerard de Nerval, Sylvie (1854)

Between memory, dream and nightmare, between human skin and digital technology, looking for an image and a sound to express wishes, affections, fears, anguish, strength, fragility and hope. A process where pleasure resides in the search in itself.

The piece is loosely inspired by Gerard de Nerval's "Sylvie"

       TÍTULO - TITLE              DURAÇÃO - TIME           ANO - YEAR           PAÍS - COUNTRY              FORMATO - FORMAT

    INSCRUTABLE                         8'36''                           2023                (Spain - Espanha)                           16:9                                                                                                                  

15-1S INSCRUTABLE  - Úrsula San Cristóbal    1ª SESSÃO | 1st SESSION

IMAGE PLAY ► International Video Art Festival - VI Edition 2024 (Funchal, Madeira - Portugal)

CREDITS:

Úrsula San Cristóbal  Director 

SYNOPSIS:

INSCRUTABLE This audiovisual poem delves into the concept of the inscrutable, or that which disturbs us but cannot be explained by conventional logic. Incomprehensible calligraphy, textures that float in the dark, tangled threads on paper, and a body whose face escapes our gaze are all elements that suggest a close relationship between the eerie and the inscrutable. Following Mark Fisher in "The Weird and the Eerie" (2016), the eerie is related to the unknown and the mysterious: "a feeling that the enigma might involve forms of knowledge, subjectivity, and sensations that lie beyond common experience." The eerie exists only as long as the mystery is incomprehensible to logic. In other words, when reality or fiction behaves in an inexplicable way, we experience a disturbing sensation that invites us to speculate; however, the enigma remains. In fictions like "The Man in the Crowd", Edgar Allan Poe foresaw that even humans can embody an eerie universe that resists scrutiny, revealing the very nature of the crime.

The fascination that the mystery of the eerie causes us and the impossibility of scrutinising it through conventional reason, open the door to the imagination derived from fantasy, speculation, hallucinations and the dream world. A rich and varied universe that is sometimes unfairly considered a mere evasion, and yet makes us aware that the complexity of the world does not always fit into our cognitive paradigms.

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  INEXPRESABLE                           07'23''                           2023                    (Spain - Espanha)                           16:9                                                                                                                             

1-2S INEXPRESABLE - Úrsula San Cristóbal   2ª SESSÃO | 2nd SESSION

IMAGE PLAY ► International Video Art Festival - VI Edition 2024 (Funchal, Madeira - Portugal)

CREDITS:

Úrsula San Cristóbal  Director

SYNOPSIS:

INEXPRESABLE  "The language you speak is made up of words that are killing you." Monique Wittig, Les Guérrillères, 1969.

Inexpressible addresses the arrogant authority of the language used to categorize a subject's experience with mental health issues. The piece is articulated as an audiovisual poem that describes the transition from submission to the language of others (psychiatry and derogatory colloquial language) to the search for a form of self-expression that prioritizes bodily sensoriality.

The piece is based on words and expressions from an anonymous psychiatric report.

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14-2S REBELIÓN - Úrsula San Cristóbal 2ª SESSÃO | 2nd SESSION

IMAGE PLAY ► International Video Art Festival - VI Edition 2024 (Funchal, Madeira - Portugal)

CREDITS:

Úrsula San Cristóbal  Director

SYNOPSIS:

REBELIÓN - Rebellion is an audiovisual poem freely inspired by the writings of Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad. Through music and images, the piece addresses the strength a body discovers gradually in the midst of oppression, and that nourishes on its lips the wild poetry of rebellion.

"Do not try to lock me up in the silence,

for I still have many mysteries to whisper in the ears of the world,

for I still must sing my passionate songs.

Come, open the gate so that we may spread our wings towards the clear skies of unadorned verses.

If we fly together, if we allow ourselves,

being a flower in the garden of poetry shall be my triumph"

Forugh Farrokhzad, "Rebelliousness" (from Captive, 1955)

Project carried out thanks to the artistic residency at Si Factoria.

Sant Ildefons auditorium. Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona)