ÚRSULA SAN CRISTÓBAL

ÚRSULA SAN CRISTÓBAL

(Espanha - Spain)

ÚRSULA SAN CRISTÓBAL is an intermedia artist and researcher devoted to experimental music, performance art, video art, weaving, and calligraphy. With an academic background in music (MA in Hispanic Music from the University of Valladolid, Spain; MA in Musicology from the University of Milan, Italy, and a BA in Early Music from Scuola Civica di Musica di Milano), she later specialised in contemporary art and audiovisual media. Ursula holds a PhD in Art History and Musicology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her dissertation on the role of sound and music in video art and performance art works by Marina Abramović and Shirin Neshat received the Extraordinary PhD Award in 2020.

She has been a guest artist at Videoformes 2023 (Clermont-Ferrand, France) and artist in residence at Fabra i Coats (Barcelona, 2023) and Nau Estruch (Sabadell, 2021). Her video art work has been screened internationally in festivals such as the Video Art and Animation Biennale of Puebla (Mexico), Festival Les Instants Vidéo (France), Camagüey International Video Art Festival (Cuba), Magmart Video Under Vulcano (Italy), BIDEODROMO International Experimental Film and Video Festival (Spain), Mostra Viva del Mediterrani de Valencia (Spain), Miami New Media Festival, Traverse Vidéo (France), FILE – Electronic Language International Festival (Brazil), Video Art Miden (Greece), Media Art Biennale WRO 2021 (Poland), ASOLO Art Film Festival 2023 (Italy), and MADATAC XII (Spain). She has received several recognitions, including an honorable mention at the 36th Girona Film Festival 2024 (Spain) for her video "Radically alive" and a special mention at the Ibrida festival 2023 (Italy) for her video "Inexpressible".

Ursula is professor of music in audiovisual media at Esmuc (Catalonia College of Music) and a professor of music aesthetics, communication and research methodology at Taller de Músics (College of jazz and modern music) in Barcelona.

INSCRUTABLE

DIGITAL ART

Technical sheets

Artistic Direction: Úrsula San Cristóbal

Digital Production: Úrsula San Cristóbal

Digital art format: square (116 x 116 cm)

Year: 2023-2025

Synopsis

This digital art poem delves into the concept of the inscrutable, or that which disturbs us but cannot be explained by conventional logic. Incomprehensible calligraphy, textures that float in the dark, tangled threads on paper, and a body whose face escapes our gaze are all elements that suggest a close relationship between the eerie and the inscrutable. Following Mark Fisher in "The Weird and the Eerie" (2016), the eerie is related to the unknown and the mysterious: "a feeling that the enigma might involve forms of knowledge, subjectivity, and sensations that lie beyond common experience." The eerie exists only as long as the mystery is incomprehensible to logic. In other words, when reality or fiction behaves in an inexplicable way, we experience a disturbing sensation that invites us to speculate; however, the enigma remains. In fictions like "The Man in the Crowd", Edgar Allan Poe foresaw that even humans can embody an eerie universe that resists scrutiny, revealing the very nature of the crime.

The fascination that the mystery of the eerie causes us and the impossibility of scrutinising it through conventional reason, open the door to the imagination derived from fantasy, speculation, hallucinations and the dream world. A rich and varied universe that is sometimes unfairly considered a mere evasion, and yet makes us aware that the complexity of the world does not always fit into our cognitive paradigms.

Apoiado - Supported

Parceiros de Meios - Media Partners