Solstice Sol Invictus in Poetics of Resistance, POSVERSO Biennial, Argentina

Exciting videopoetry curation by Alejandro Thornton at avant-garde Poetics of Resistance, POSVERSO Biennial Argentina, 6 December.  Artists include: Oskar Fischinger (Alemania), Walter Ruttmann (Alemania), Augusto de Campos (Brasil), Decio Pignatari (Brasil), Tom Konyves (Canadá), Montenegro-Fischer (UK-Chile), Sarah Tremlett with Lucy English(UK), Tulio Restrepo (Colombia), Tatiana Gaviola (Chile), Belén Gache, Gonzalo Aguilar (author of leading publication on Argentinian Cinema), Ivana Vollaro, Rubén Grau, Ro Barragán, Rosa Gravino, Paula Pellejero, Facundo Díaz y Alejandro Thornton amongst others’. Over the moon to be in such stellar company with Solstice Sol Invictus.
 
Really a very exciting collection of works, and I wish I could be there to see a rare example of Walter Ruttmann’s abstract cinematic films. I am honoured that my poetry film Solstice Sol Invictus has been included in this really impressive group and particularly with the legendary artist Augusto de Campos. I created the concept (words, visuals, sound) of the film for Lucy English’s The Book of Hours project, with the theme of course registering the mediaeval and reflective, temporal feel of the original Books of Hours, but with the sun and its passage through the year as a central theme bringing – hope, faith and regeneration. I came up with the (verbal, visual and sound) concept and wrote the first four verses and Lucy the second.
 
I also made another poetry film for this project (a natural pair) entitled Summer Solstice (with old 35 mm footage of a California beach). Solstice Sol Invictus effectively uses the screen as a moving canvas, showing the changes in light as the sun passes through the seasons. I also have referenced earlier painters and their solar depictions and in the latest version I have included these at the end.
 
​Historical paintings that influenced this work include: Max Ernst’s Black Sun 1927–8; Vincent Van Gogh’s Sower with Setting Sun (1888); Ambassador of Autumn, 1922 by Paul Klee, which has haunted me with its tonal, horizontal gradations, also influencing the dynamic structure of Mr Sky, 2018, (another poetry film with Lucy English) and a later abstract landscape Spiral Motif in Green, Violet, Blue and Gold: The Coast of the Inland Sea, 1950 by British artist Victor Pasmore (1908–98).

POSVERSO on till 20th December with many more events.
https://posversobienal.com.ar/
 
https://liberatedwords.com/2024/11/30/poetics-of-resistance-posverso-biennial-videopoetry-curation-by-alejandro-thornton/