Carlos Casas
Encyclopedia
Carlos Casas is a Spanish
filmmaker and visual artist. His work is a cross between documentary film, cinema, and contemporary visual and sound arts. His last three films have been awarded in festivals around the world from Torino, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City and some of his video works have been presented in collective and personal exhibitions.In 2001 he started a trilogy of work dedicated to the most extreme environments on the planet, Patagonia, Aral sea, and Siberia. He has collaborated with musicians and artists from Phill Niblock
, Z'EV
, Nico Vascellari
, Prurient
, Sebastian Escofet
, Nastro Mortal.
, International Film Festival Rotterdam
and Reencontres du Cinema in Paris 2001. In 2001 he started a series of documentaries for Colors Magazine, and a series of Fieldworks, an ongoing experiment with ambiental video and radio frequencies, a sort of landscape video notes, in 2003 he developed a 52 min documentary,”Rocinha
. Daylight of a favela” Shot on location in one of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janeiro.He also publish a compilation of Funk Carioca in collaboration with DJ Marlboro and Irma Records. In 2004 he finished “Aral. Fishing in an invisible sea” about the life of the three remaining generation of Fishermen in the Aral sea, which won the best documentary award in Torino Film festival 2004, and was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam
2005. Visions du Réel
documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland 2005, One World Prague
2005, and Documenta Madrid 2005 where it received the special mention from the jury. In May 2005 he finished a 52 min version of the Patagonia research “Solitude at the end of the world”which received the special prize from the Jury in BAFICI Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2006. The Siberia project ”Hunters since the beginning of time” is the last chapter of a trilogy of films dedicated to the most extreme environments in the world. (Patagonia, Aral, Siberia) was awarded Best Documentary Award in FICCO
Mexico International Film Festival 2008. In 2008 he published a selection of forbidden funk [Proibidão]Proibidao CV: Forbidden Gang Funk From Rio de Janeiro for the label Sublime Frequencies. In 2007 he presented in different festivals in his latest work Tundra from the Siberian Fieldworks series, a live media project premiered at Netmage Festival in Bologna and Sonar
.and was also presented in Multiplicidade in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2008 he founded together with fellow artist friend, Nico Vascellari
Von Archives an audiovisual label publishing experimental audiovisual productions. Later in 2009 he created with partner and wife Saodat Ismailova, Map Productions, a production house dedicated to develop audiovisual projects around the world, from feature films, to documentaries. In 2010 he presented his Cemetery Archive Works in Netmage and his End trilogy was presented for the first time in Cineteca Mexicana. In june 2010 Hangar Bicocca in Milano presented END a comprehensive exhibition of the trilogy.
Avalanche (overture) his latest project is a collaboration with the American sound artist and minimalist legend Phill Niblock
an ongoing project based in the Pamir mountains, in one of the world's highest inhabited villages. Avalanche (overture) superimposes Casas' footage over the overtones of "Stosspeng," a piece by Niblock. It is a visual-sonic journey, an extremely intense audiovisual meditation and a sensory experience in which extremes meet: nature in its rawest state and the pure, breathtaking and heady sound of drones. Presented for the first time in its first incarnation in Sonar Festival, Avalanche is an open film, reedited every time it is shown and adapted to the space it is presented Avalanche is an organic example of film-making, an ongoing document to the disappearance of this village, a reactive film within its community, Avalanche is alive together with the village, dying and born again every time it is presented. He is currently working on a film about a cemetery of elephants on the borders between India and Nepal.
2007 (Mexico International Film Festival) for Hunters since the beginning of time
Special prize of the Jury BAFICI 2006 (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema) for Solitude at the end of the world
Best Documentary Award Torino Film Festival
2004 for Aral. Fishing in an invisible sea
Special prize of the jury Documenta Madrid 2005 for Aral. Fishing in an invisible sea
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
filmmaker and visual artist. His work is a cross between documentary film, cinema, and contemporary visual and sound arts. His last three films have been awarded in festivals around the world from Torino, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City and some of his video works have been presented in collective and personal exhibitions.In 2001 he started a trilogy of work dedicated to the most extreme environments on the planet, Patagonia, Aral sea, and Siberia. He has collaborated with musicians and artists from Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock is a composer, filmmaker, videographer, and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a parallel branch in Ghent, Belgium.-Biography:...
, Z'EV
Z'EV
Z'EV is an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels...
, Nico Vascellari
Nico Vascellari
Nico Vascellari was born in 1976 in Vittorio Veneto , Italy. Currently lives and works in New York, USA and Vittorio Veneto, Italy. Nico Vascellari is an Italian artist coming out of a Punk scene. His work is a mix between performance art and sound exploration. He is represented by Monitor Gallery...
, Prurient
Prurient
Prurient is the performing name of Ian Dominick Fernow. He has released material on numerous independent record labels, such as American Tapes, Hanson Records, RRRecords, Load Records, Troubleman Unlimited, Chrondritic Sound, Kitty Play Records, and his own label Hospital Productions...
, Sebastian Escofet
Sebastian Escofet
Sebastian Escofet was born in La Plata, Argentina in 1968. At the age of 5, after long listening sessions in his grandfather Luciano's study, he knew music was his calling...
, Nastro Mortal.
Biography
Carlos Casas studied fine arts, cinema and design. In 1998 he was awarded an Artist-in-residence in Fabrica, research and communication center of Benetton. In 2000 his short Film “Afterwords”, produced by Marco Müller and Fabrica Cinema was selected for Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, International Film Festival Rotterdam
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
and Reencontres du Cinema in Paris 2001. In 2001 he started a series of documentaries for Colors Magazine, and a series of Fieldworks, an ongoing experiment with ambiental video and radio frequencies, a sort of landscape video notes, in 2003 he developed a 52 min documentary,”Rocinha
Rocinha
Rocinha is the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is located in Rio's South Zone between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea. Rocinha is built on a steep hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro, and is located about one kilometre from a nearby beach...
. Daylight of a favela” Shot on location in one of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janeiro.He also publish a compilation of Funk Carioca in collaboration with DJ Marlboro and Irma Records. In 2004 he finished “Aral. Fishing in an invisible sea” about the life of the three remaining generation of Fishermen in the Aral sea, which won the best documentary award in Torino Film festival 2004, and was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
2005. Visions du Réel
Visions du réel
Visions du Réel is an international documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current name in 1995....
documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland 2005, One World Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
2005, and Documenta Madrid 2005 where it received the special mention from the jury. In May 2005 he finished a 52 min version of the Patagonia research “Solitude at the end of the world”which received the special prize from the Jury in BAFICI Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2006. The Siberia project ”Hunters since the beginning of time” is the last chapter of a trilogy of films dedicated to the most extreme environments in the world. (Patagonia, Aral, Siberia) was awarded Best Documentary Award in FICCO
FICCO
Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival, or FICCO for its initials in Spanish was an annual film festival that began in February 2004 and finished in 2010....
Mexico International Film Festival 2008. In 2008 he published a selection of forbidden funk [Proibidão]Proibidao CV: Forbidden Gang Funk From Rio de Janeiro for the label Sublime Frequencies. In 2007 he presented in different festivals in his latest work Tundra from the Siberian Fieldworks series, a live media project premiered at Netmage Festival in Bologna and Sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
.and was also presented in Multiplicidade in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2008 he founded together with fellow artist friend, Nico Vascellari
Nico Vascellari
Nico Vascellari was born in 1976 in Vittorio Veneto , Italy. Currently lives and works in New York, USA and Vittorio Veneto, Italy. Nico Vascellari is an Italian artist coming out of a Punk scene. His work is a mix between performance art and sound exploration. He is represented by Monitor Gallery...
Von Archives an audiovisual label publishing experimental audiovisual productions. Later in 2009 he created with partner and wife Saodat Ismailova, Map Productions, a production house dedicated to develop audiovisual projects around the world, from feature films, to documentaries. In 2010 he presented his Cemetery Archive Works in Netmage and his End trilogy was presented for the first time in Cineteca Mexicana. In june 2010 Hangar Bicocca in Milano presented END a comprehensive exhibition of the trilogy.
Avalanche (overture) his latest project is a collaboration with the American sound artist and minimalist legend Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock is a composer, filmmaker, videographer, and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a parallel branch in Ghent, Belgium.-Biography:...
an ongoing project based in the Pamir mountains, in one of the world's highest inhabited villages. Avalanche (overture) superimposes Casas' footage over the overtones of "Stosspeng," a piece by Niblock. It is a visual-sonic journey, an extremely intense audiovisual meditation and a sensory experience in which extremes meet: nature in its rawest state and the pure, breathtaking and heady sound of drones. Presented for the first time in its first incarnation in Sonar Festival, Avalanche is an open film, reedited every time it is shown and adapted to the space it is presented Avalanche is an organic example of film-making, an ongoing document to the disappearance of this village, a reactive film within its community, Avalanche is alive together with the village, dying and born again every time it is presented. He is currently working on a film about a cemetery of elephants on the borders between India and Nepal.
Filmography
- Avalanche (2010-ongoing)
- Hunters Since the Beginning of Time (2008)
- Solitude at the End of the Time (2005)
- Aral. Fishing in an Invisible Sea (2004)
- Rocinha. Daylight of a Favela (2003)
- Afterwords (2000)
Awards
Best Documentary Award FICCOFICCO
Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival, or FICCO for its initials in Spanish was an annual film festival that began in February 2004 and finished in 2010....
2007 (Mexico International Film Festival) for Hunters since the beginning of time
Special prize of the Jury BAFICI 2006 (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema) for Solitude at the end of the world
Best Documentary Award Torino Film Festival
Torino Film Festival
The Torino Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival...
2004 for Aral. Fishing in an invisible sea
Special prize of the jury Documenta Madrid 2005 for Aral. Fishing in an invisible sea
External links
- Carlos Casas website
Carlos Casas youtube Channel
Carlos Casas Vimeo channel
Carlos Casas the wire interview
The Wire magazine
Carlos Casas at Hangar Bicocca Domus magazine
Carlos Casas digicult interview
Netmage 2010 digicult interview
Recent Exhibitions
Exibart
Review Hunters since the beginning of time
Review Solitude at the end of the world
Siberian Fieldworks at Galerie Davide Gallo Berlin
Carlos Casas, Thomas Köner - Ways to Nowhere
BLOGS&DOCS "Buscar los orígenes",
Abitare Carlos Casas "Spazi di suono"