Microscope is very pleased to present an online screening of selected works by Spanish artist and filmmaker Antoni Pinent. The screening will begin on Monday January 25th at 7:30pm ET and remain available for viewing until Thursday 28th at 10:30pm PT.

In this selection of ten films by Pinent spanning over 23 years — from his first work on 35mm film “Mi Primer 35mm” made in 1997 to his latest “SHARITS / KASSEL 2015” completed last year — film is often removed from its usual placement in the film projector and considered solely as a filmstrip, a surface able to hold static visual compositions, and as an object to look at under standard room illumination.

In works such as “QR CODE / FILM” and “GIOCONDA / FILM,” the film consists of a single image — a black QR code against a white background in the first, and Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,’ in the second — deconstructed into a grid of film frames from a series of filmstrips arranged side-by-side. The quite unique result when passed through the projector is the appearance of the shredding of a static image into strips of celluloid. Similarly, in “Música visual en vertical” grand staff musical notations are printed onto a 35mm filmstrip, the projected translation of which rushes vertically through the screen.

Other, but equally disruptive, structural operations are found in the artist’s 2013 “G/R/E/A/S/E” and the earlier “FILM QUARTET / POLYFRAME” (2008), both intensely reworked versions of found movies. In G/R/E/A/S/E — which is inspired by Dziga Vertov and Mimmo Rotella, among others — Pinent recuts, replays, hand-processes, optically reprints, and applies many other techiniques including hole-puncihg, scratching, erasing, marking and collaging to the 1978 cult musical “Grease.” The subdivision of the frame into four narrower horizontal areas frequently shifting independent from one another, allows for unexpected combinations of scenes and imagery often far apart from each other in the original timeline.

Described by Peter Tscherkassky as a prime example of “films that bring out the plasticity of the medium,” “FILM QUARTET / POLYFRAME” is a further investigation of the subdivision of the frame — usually intended as the “minimum unit of (cinematographic) time” — and the sonic depths of an out-of-sync optical track. The thoroughly dissected footage includes film snippets from Buñuel and Dali’s “Un Chien Andalou” (1929), Michael Snow’s “Wavelength” (1967), as well as brief appearances by the Pink Panther, Buster Keaton, Gene Kelly, and others collaged together in this piece made in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Bruce Conner’s “A Movie” (1958).

Pinent will be available for a Q&A with the audience via live chat on on Thursday January 28th at 7pm ET.

TO WATCH:

A “Watch Now” link will appear on this page on Monday January 25th at 7pm ET. Passes for viewing give full access to the video program and live chat.

General admission $8 (Valid through Thursday January 28, 10:30pm PT)Member admission $6 (Valid through Thursday January 28, 10:30pm PT)

Born in Lleida, Spain in 1975, Antoni Pinent is a film curator, programmer, producer and experimental filmmaker whose work has been screened at film festivals, cinematheques and museums worldwide, including at SFMoMA, San Francisco; Viennale, Vienna, Austria; BAFICI International Film Festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina; BFI London Film Festival, London, UK; Edinburgh International Film Festival; EXiS Experimental Film & Video Festival, Seoul, South Korea; among others. In 2008 Pinent received the Biennale Award from The Museum of Contemporary Cinema (MoCC. New York / Paris / Madrid). Since 2014 he has been working as a curator in collaboration with the Los Angeles Film Forum on the project “Ismo Ismo Ismo. Experimental Cinema in Latin America”. He current lives and works between Los Angeles and Venice (Italy).