P1000407

A bridge between Mexico and Western Sahara

Mexican artist and filmmaker Mario Brondo has announced the completion of the theatrical version of Villa Cisneros, a series of short experimental documentaries shot in the Western Sahara desert, both in mined camps; and refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

The very hard to classify film / artwork will be showing in the next few months.

“When I arrived in the Saharaui refugee camps, I knew that I needed to shoot something experimental. The nature of the place and the big hearts of people living there, immediatly led me to structure the piece in 8 independent chapters, each with  different narrative and rhetoric style. I wanted to push the boundaries of the viewer´s mind beyond cinematic clichés.”

The film analyzes how History is built by humans. In this case Brondo takes very random resources to build coherence. With free-licenced texts and music and even a robot narrator, an uncanny feeling of how contemporary information works, and how texts are produced, adopted, and misinterpreted is acheived.

“Its a work about Historiography: the way History is made up. Some resources include poems, testimonials, and even lies. Music is used to intentionally generate artificial feelings over the images and texts.”

Villa Cisneros is both a film, AND a series of video artworks. In the gallery version, it can ideally become an installation with 8 simultaneous video channels, but videos can also be shown independently. Parts are: Fresco, Mise en Abîme, Arqueología, Ouroboros, Sirocco, Lo Insípido, La Guerra, and Tiempos Muertos.

“I think Villa Cisneros is a phenomenon of globalization, where people from very different backgrounds can meet and share ideas. Art in this case is the way to make a bridge between civilizations, and cultural integration is always an engine for peace and tolerance.”

Brondo´s work has recently been seen in the exhibition Wunderkammer (Halle, Paris, Sinop), along with work by Lars Von Trier, David Lynch, and Alghiero Boetti. Villa Cisneros, 66 min, 2016 is Mario Brondo´s first feature length experimental documentary. He is preparing the release of the 4 deaths of María Desiderio, which is an essay about death and magic. Among other projects, The Gold Comes To You is programed for showing at art venues in Mexico.

Some of the episodes of Villa Cisneros and some other artworks and videos can be seen at Brondo´s personal website http://brondo.co

Mario Brondo (Mexico City, 1982) is a Mexican artist and filmmaker. He finished his master´s degree in Le Fresnoy, Studio National in France in 2009. His work has been shown in film festivals and art exhibitions in Mexico and Europe.

Contact:

brondo.co@gmail.com

mario.brondo@gmail.com

http://brondo.co

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