EUGENIO GRANELL AND CINEMA: A TWENTY-MINUTE FILM

There have been many artists who, coming from the field of painting, have maintained a close relationship with film throughout their career. Man Ray, Viking Eggeling, Walter Ruttmann, Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, and Jean Cocteau to name a few, almost all of whom belonged to the Dadaist and Surrealist movements, experimented with the possibilities of filmmaking in an era in which a global situation, characterised by major fragmentation in the sphere of thought and creation, led to the dissolution of interdisciplinary boundaries.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that an artist like Eugenio Granell, whose life history so directly influenced his artistic production, was attracted to and fascinated by the image, both in its photographic and cinematic form. However, his experiments in the field of the moving image are part of a hitherto virtually unknown side of the artist, except by researchers and those interested in the subject. The screening of his films to a more general public is a relatively recent development, which benefited from the growth in new technologies and the fact that they have begun to circulate in exhibitions associated with major research projects about his legacy.

In addition to the artist’s complete filmography, which consists of three experimental films —Invierno (1960), Lluvia (1961), and Dibujo (1961)— and three works of surrealist cinema —Trompos (1961), Middlebury (1962) and Película hecha en casa con pelota y muñeca (1962)—, the exhibition will display a series of documents and personal items that make up part of Eugenio Granell’s creative universe. Some of these were used directly in the making of the films; others are part of the various collections assembled by the artist throughout his life and serve as catalysts to facilitate the understanding of his proposal.

The exhibition Eugenio Granell and cinema: a twenty-minute film forms part of the project to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Eugenio Granell, organised by the Granell Foundation in collaboration with the following institutions: Fundación Cidade da Cultura, Museo do Pobo Galego, Auditorio de Galicia, Centro Cultural Novacaixagalicia, and Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea.