From La Vorágine and OVNI, we will offer 2 events
The first:
The Language of Birds
SANTANDER: Thursday, April 9 from 7:30 to 9:30
at the Santander headquarters of the Cantabria Film Library (c/ Bonifaz 6)
with a program of various video creations by our friend and colleague Toni Serra* ) Abu Ali
and the following day, we will present the book
Opening Vision. The Legacy of Toni Serra
SANTANDER: Friday, April 10 from 7:30 to 9:30
Editorial La Vorágine (C. Cardenal Cisneros, 69, Santander)
Toni Serra *) Abu Ali was not only one of the most relevant authors and video artists of his generation, but also a co-founder of the Observatory of Unidentified Video. Above all, he was an explorer and seeker of light within a contemporary mysticism, accustomed to diving into the waters of audiovisual and poetic peripheries. His work and life bear witness to an attitude of honest commitment to our time.
The book Abrir la Visión brings together a collection of writings by collaborators, accomplices, and various friends from a rich and heterogeneous community. The intention was to weave voices together to trace a journey that crosses all kinds of spiritual and aesthetic landscapes: from Barcelona in the late eighties, we travel to New York in the nineties, and from there we walk toward Marrakech in the early two-thousands. Through his illustrations, Miguel Brieva gives form to this vital and artistic journey, endowing it with the tone of a legend that, paradoxically, feels very close.
The presentation of the book Abrir la Visión will be conducted by Rosa Llop, Simona Malatesta and Gabriel Villota.
The book has been published by La Vorágine and is now available for online purchase.
The Language of Birds
With Gabriel Villota, Rosa Llop and Simona Malatesta from OVNI
At the Cantabria Film Library / Free entry until full capacity
Pura Fe. USA-Spain, 1991. 7’.
Los Sures, Brooklyn, New York. A solitary Puerto Rican preacher.
Interzona, Spain, 1996, No dialogue 7’.
The search for light finds fire.
Minnesota 1943, Spain, 1996, No dialogue 7’.
In 1943, the University of Minnesota conducted, commissioned by the U.S. Army, a psychological test for the selection of officers.
Perro Corazón, Morocco, 1998, 29’, VOSE.
Tangier, 1998.
Conversations at Bar La Poste with Tangier writer Mohammed Chukri and New York poet Ira Cohen—stories of death, estrangement and loss under the mantle of friendship.
Dar al Ajira. Morocco, 2004. VOSE. 5’.
Fate has the width of a span and a half, the width of a grave.
Wahab. Spain, 1994. Morocco. Arabic vo. No dialogue 3’.
Dusty Egyptian songs, encounters and losses.
The Song of the Hoopoe, Morocco, 2015. VOSE, 28’.
The hoopoe is a bird that often appears as a symbol related to the initiatory journey, in both Arabic and Persian poetry.
Last Night Dirk, Morocco, 2005, No dialogue 7’.
The search for water, the descent into the well of the heart. Based on a poem by Najmudin Kubra, 12th century Persia.
7 Contemplations. Morocco, 2016. No dialogue 10’.
One may see the bird’s flight, watch it to observe it, or feel that one flies with it. That is contemplation: becoming the other.
Trance with the Green Man, Morocco, 2015, No dialogue, 8’.
A search for Al Khadir, الخضر, the inner master.
Midnight Sun. Morocco, 2016, No dialogue 11’.
"In the universe there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors..." [William Blake]
Asemanastan (Farewell), Morocco-Iran, 2019, No dialogue, 3’.