Short Circuit #1

“16mm” and “Quien Bien Ama Nunca Olvida” are connected in their study of our relationship to the natural world and by the idea of measured distance, whether literal or figurative. Both essay films feel somehow tactile and immediate — simultaneously conceptual and physical. 

In “16mm,” Daniel Steegmann Mangrané explores the nuanced connection between distance and time through a 16mm standard film roll. The camera mechanism and its moving vessel are meticulously rigged such that each meter of film shot corresponds exactly to a meter advanced through the jungle, and the speed of this movement matches the speed of the film inside the camera. To accomplish this, Steegmann worked with an engineer to replace the camera engine and design a custom transmission system that allowed the camera to move along a tensioned steel cable while shooting.Finely tuned so there are no obstructions, the camera glides through the air catching the lush density of the Mata Atlântica rainforest. The effect is mesmerizing — we are lost in time, space, and in the natural world. The seamless, meticulously paced movement feels profoundly visceral and experiential.

In “Quien Bien Ama Nunca Olvida”, Díaz examines distance that is imposed through natural landscapes, like a river that divides and unites. The film calls attention to both physical and conceptual boundaries in the natural world: boundaries between cultures and communities, and the idea of citizenship through literal borders in natural land. In her ode to borderlands, distance is measured through memory and nostalgia; a separation between our ancestors and our present selves, sharing the same land.

Stills from “Quien Bien Ama Nunca Olvida”

Still from “16mm”

Curated by Faye Tsakas & Jesy Odio

Caitlin Díaz was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. As a filmmaker, her experimental film works explore the human psyche and the processes that surround individual experience. By combining analog, digital and direct filmmaking techniques, her filmic language celebrates the past while pushing the technical and theoretical boundaries of the present.

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's practice encompasses a wide range of media, including film, sculpture, sound, gardens and drawing. His work focuses on the creation and migration of forms between nature, art and architecture. The artist is particularly interested in biological and morphogenetic processes, which he uses as inspiration for the creation of works that, responding to self-imposed systems of chance and rule-based principles of composition, undermine the boundaries between organic and man-made aesthetics and the traditional separations between objects and subjects.