As part of the research project The Performativity of Images, two years ago we were working on a process of reflection and research through images, a reflection on the operations they construct, their resistances and possibilities. This work was based on the hypothesis that a criticism of visual culture cannot be made against images but rather from them. The aim is to approach them through their materiality, through the porosities that they contain and that question their understanding in abstract terms.

This session is an invitation to share our work process, the methodologies we set up in each case, the tensions we experienced and above all the ground that still needs to be covered.

Ivan Pintor has a PhD in Audiovisual Communication and is professor of Contemporary Film Trends, Evolution of Visual Languages and History of the Comic at Pompeu Fabra University. He has directed numerous cycles for CaixaForum, has produced audiovisual works for museums and television and regularly writes for the “Cultura/s” supplement of La Vanguardia. He has taught at universities in Italy, Colombia and Argentina and has worked as a screenwriter for both television and film.

Pilar Monsell is a filmmaker, editor, artist and researcher. Her works include real-world cinema, archives, memory, text-image dialogue and performances using analogue projection devices. She has obtained various awards and artistic residences, and her work has been presented at many international festivals, museums and cultural institutions around the world. Among them are the films Distancias, África 815 and Dos sueños después, the installations Cuidadoras de patios: lo íntimo-público and Córdoba 1652, and the most recent performance project Principio Máquina de Coser, directed by the duo Prismáticas (Monsell & Olaskoaga).

Marta Dahó is an exhibition curator whose career has been marked by her interest in photographic practices. Her curatorial projects include Fotografies com a espai públic. Col·lecció Nacional de Fotografia. Generalitat de Catalunya (Arts Santa Mònica, 2018-2017), a retrospective on Stephen Shore (Mapfre Foundation, 2014) and a retrospective on Graciela Iturbide (Mapfre Foundation, 2009). More recently she has collaborated with “la Caixa” Foundation in the exhibition Cámara y ciudad. La vida urbana en la fotografía y el cine (CaixaForum Barcelona-Madrid-Zaragoza, 2019-2020) and with the District Plan in the exhibition Setze barris. Mil Ciutats (El Borsí, Barcelona, 2019).

Felipe Oyarzun is studying for a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. He teaches Philosophy of Art and has focused his research especially on phenomenology and visual studies. Since 2007 he has been in charge of the Academic Development Directorate of the Institute of Art and Communication ARCOS, which deals with performance, cinema, photography, animation and design of video games.

Andrea Soto Calderón, PhD in Philosophy, lecturer in Aesthetics and Theory of Art. She has done research in Valparaíso, Barcelona, Lisbon and Paris. Her research lines are focused on the transformations of the aesthetic experience in contemporary culture, criticism, artistic research, the study of the image and the media, and the relationship between aesthetics and politics.

She has written numerous academic articles and texts for artists’ catalogues. Her recent publications include the book Le travail des images, in collaboration with Jacques Rancière (Les presses du réel, 2019).