Dart will inaugurate its 6th edition with the premiere of "Corrección. Ignasi Aballí"

Dart, a pioneering festival in Spain to program documentary films dedicated exclusively to contemporary art, will offer its programming in person at Sala Phenomena, Cinemes Girona, The Social Hub and MACBA in Barcelona, and in digital format on the Filmin platform . Its programming delves into the biographies and creations of artists essential to understanding Spanish and international art of our time. The contest presents cinematographic novelties that address stories from the avant-gardes of the early 20th century to the present day, and highlights the breadth of disciplines and ways of making art, in addition to the multiple functions that art fulfills in our society

Dart will inaugurate its 6th edition on November 24 at Sala Phenomena with the premiere of Corrección. Ignasi Aballí, the documentary about the project of the artist Ignasi Aballí for the Spain Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2022. The premiere of the film, which also coincides with the closing weekend of the Biennale, is a great opportunity to delve into the background of the exhibition with unpublished images and interviews. It is a story that gives special prominence to what it means to devise, conceptualize and produce an exhibition from the first months of work until its opening.

The screening will be accompanied by a discussion afterwards with the artist, the curator of the exhibition, Bea Espejo, and the director, Miquel Romans. The Festival dedicates a double session to art and activism in the era of the Anthropocene, with the premieres in Spain of Pacha (2020), which documents the most sustainable flight in human history - a project of artist Tomás Saraceno and the community Aerocene– and Unseen Skies (2021), about the most audacious project of Trevor Paglen's career, in which he launched a satellite from the Nevada desert to record of the invisible surveillance structures that populate Earth's orbit. Among the international premieres, J'ai retrouvé Christian B. (2020) stands out, the definitive biopic about the French artist Christian Boltanski, one of the geniuses of our time who died in 2021, it is a film directed by his great friend and acclaimed filmmaker , writer and photographer Alain Fleischer.

Every year, the festival forges alliances with different national and international cultural and artistic entities. Once again, Dart Festival and MACBA collaborate again, this time for the premiere in Spain of the biopic about the famous African-American artist David Hammons, with his stinging criticism of racism and the world of art elite; in collaboration with the platform of international film festivals on art, promoted by the Montreal International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), Dart premieres City Dreamers, about four pioneering Canadian architects and international environmental activists; and in collaboration with Setmana de l'Art a Catalunya, organized by the Guild of Galleries of Catalonia, the Festival premieres Lucian Freud: A Self Portrait (2020), on the occasion of the centenary of Lucian Freud's birth.

On November 30th at the MACBA, the winners of the Laie Award for Best Direction and the Laie Award for Criticism will be announced, coinciding with the closing screening of the in-person festival. The jury of the Dart 2022 Official Section is made up of film critic Quim Casas, art curators Max Andrews and Mariana Canepa Luna from the curatorial office Latitudes and Ianko López, cultural journalist specializing in art and audiovisual.

The DART program in Barcelona

The festival presents 23 documentaries – 12 of which are premieres in Spain – a careful offer that combines cinematographic novelties for face-to-face screenings in Barcelona with a selection of outstanding titles from other editions that link art to current issues by online format at Filmin.

This year's program highlights key figures from the international art scene such as Lucian Freud, Leonora Carrington, Christian Boltanski, David Hammons, Keith Haring, Wangechi Mutu and from the national scene such as Elena Asins, Isidor Valcárcel Medina, Esther Ferrer , Cristina Iglesias and Ignasi Aballí. Within the framework of artistic practices based on activism, Dart will present documentaries on projects by Tomás Saraceno, Trevor Paglen and Tania Bruguera. Documentary and artistic photography will feature biopics on Robert Mapplethorpe, Steve McCurry and Letizia Battaglia; and the encounters between fashion and art with a biopic on Cecil Beaton and a documentary starring Vivienne Westwood. The offer on architecture and design gives prominence to the female creative process with a documentary on the women of the Bauhaus and another on the pioneers of Canadian architecture. In collaboration with Dart Chile, which takes place from November 11 to 24 in the cities of Santiago and Concepción, documentaries are presented on the Chilean artists Pedro Lemebel and Vicente Ruiz, international references in performance and LGBTIQ+ activism .

Dart puts the spotlight on decolonial artistic voices with two American films, the biopic The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art and Times of David Hammons (2021) about the celebrated African-American artist David Hammons, whose artistic practice makes a deep critique of American society and the world of elite art; and the short film Wangechi Mutu: Between the Earth and the Sky (2021), about Wangechi Mutu, a Kenyan artist based in New York who investigates issues of gender, race, sexuality, ecology and power.

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the British painter Lucian Freud, the Festival premieres in Spain Lucian Freud: A Self Portrait (2020), a documentary that narrates the trajectory of one of the most important artists of the 20th century, taking his famous self-portraits as at the starting point. Dart also presents the premiere of Art Lovers Unite! (2022), starring the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood who walks the corridors of the Gemaeldegalerie art gallery in Berlin while addressing various topics about creativity and its essential relationship with the visual arts; McCurry. The Search for Color (2021), the first documentary about the famous American photographer Steve McCurry, which shows how family, friends and his travels have brought to life the stories behind the most iconic photographs; linked to architecture and design, the festival programs City Dreamers (2018), about Phyllis Lambert, Denise Scott Brown, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Blanche Lemco van Ginke, four pioneering Canadian architects who worked together to transform the urban environment, making this a more humane space, and The Women of the Bauhaus (2019), a tribute to the almost 500 women artists who studied and taught at the Bauhaus school, creators whose names have been in the shadow for many years. In addition to Correction. Ignasi Aballí, Dart presents three more films about key figures in the history of current Spanish art: "There is nothing to understand here. A documentary on Elena Asins" (2020), a production of the Reina Sofia Museum that approaches the singularity of the artist's work, a key figure in geometric abstraction and art as research since 1960 ; Hondalea: abismo marino (2021), about the most extreme work of the artist Cristina Iglesias, a sculpture that has radically transformed the interior of the Santa Clara Island Lighthouse in Sant Sebastià-Donostia; The Art of Escape. Conversaciones y Paseos con Isidoro Valcárcel Medina (2022) a short film that gives voice to the artist from Murcia and his undisciplined artistic practice.