The Cunninghame Graham Lecture 2022

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Abstract

La Síntesis Rota – experimentos en el ojo de la tormenta

By Poli Marichal

"Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo" - José Ortega y Gasset

 La cineasta y artista visual puertorriqueña Poli Marichal ilustra su trayectoria artística y su proceso creativo utilizando fotos familiares y documentales y clips de películas experimentales en super 8 mm y 16mm, así como también animaciones virtuales recientes. 

 Para mí, encontrarle sentido a la realidad que me ha tocado vivir como mujer, caribeña, puertorriqueña, hija de padre republicano exilado y de madre de extracción criolla, ambos con mucho bagaje existencial, sigue siendo un proceso de encuentro, pugna y reconciliación.

El arte visual y el cine me han servido para tratar de sintetizar y de encontrarle un ritmo y lógica interna a toda esa burundanga, hija de la migración forzosa, del mestizaje cultural y racial que nos define, y de la patética situación de Puerto Rico como colonia de los Estados Unidos de América, de quienes somos botín de Guerra aún a estas alturas del Siglo XXI. Todas esas circunstancias, contradicciones y disonancias, retumban como un tambor a un nivel subjetivo y a la vez universal.

Mi especificidad se vuelve una cantera que voy horadando para encontrar la esencia de lo que es ser una ciudadana del convulsado planeta Tierra. Y es entonces que, partiendo desde esa disyuntiva, puedo trascender mis limitaciones.  

About the speaker

The filmmaker, printmaker, and illustrator Poli Marichal was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1955. She completed a two-year exchange program at the Escola Massana, Barcelona (1976), and then studied at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, San Juan (BA 1978), and Massachusetts College of Art, Boston (MFA 1982).

Regardless of the medium, Marichal's work has consistently traversed two constant threads. One line of exploration is her interest in political, social, and environmental concerns, while the other taps into a more emotive and introspective vision of herself.

Since 1995, Marichal has mastered different printmaking techniques; she has adapted her 1950s Reprex letterpress to print linocuts, woodcuts, collagraphs, drypoints, monotypes, and mixed-media works. Currently, she has merged her graphic work with animation, an area in which she began working when she lived in Puerto Rico.

Marichal is lauded as one of the first experimental filmmakers in Puerto Rico, starting with films from the mid-1980s. Some of her early films include Underwater Blues (1981), Coffee Break (1987), and Los espejísmos de Mandrágora Luna (Mandrágora Luna's phantoms, 1987). Her later documentary video about the origins and influence of the musical genres of bomba and plena in Puerto Rico, Son Afrocaribeño (Afro-Caribbean son, 1995), combines animation with documentary footage.

Her complete cinematic works are being restored by Mark Toscano at the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles, where the Oscars are awarded each year. Toscano is the same archivist who restored the complete works of the experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage.

This event has was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs at the Embassy of Spain, the Consulate of Spain in Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh.

The Cunninghame Graham Lecture

The Cunninghame Graham Lecture was established in 1996 in honour of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham - aka ‘Don Roberto’ (London, 1852-Buenos Aires, 1936) - politician, estanciero, and writer, who travelled extensively in Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay and had very strong ties to Argentina.

Delivered annually, it is jointly organised by LLC and the Office of Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain with the aim of promoting Spanish language and culture in Scotland.

Occasionally, the Lecture has been held as part of a wider event, such as the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival in 2019.

Past speakers have included scholars, film makers, politicians, journalists, novelists, and figures bridging the Hispanic world and Scotland, such as the architect Enric Miralles (1955-2000) who designed the Scottish Parliament building.

Previous lectures in the series

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