In conjunction with the current exhibition Closed Paradise, you are cordially invited to a private screening of the work of Jose Val Del Omar next Monday October 26th, 2015 at 7pm, at The Clemente center.

Jose Val Del Omar (b.1904 - 1982) was a cinematic poet who’s mission was to use the power of cinema to transcend visible reality. A contemporary of Federico Garcia Lorca during the 1930’s in Spain, Val Del Omar spent his early years as a filmmaker working in the Pedagogical Missions, a governmental project which brought education, technology and industry to rural and poor communities. His humble and profound interactions with the poor influenced his attitude and relationship towards cinema. He considered cinema the supreme art of experience. To quote Val Del Omar, “The public is a great child in love with the extraordinary, and the extraordinary is present in the entrails of the everyday.” 

Val Del Omar often visited the Alhambra, an Islamic palace-fortress complex in Granada (Spain) designed to evoke a paradise on earth. The theme of Closed Paradise begins with his intimate yet highly formal portraits of his family while living in the Pedagogical Missions, and leads us to the Alhambra, a unique and mystical place, and to borrow a phrase from Renaissance poet, Pedro Soto De Rojas, "Paradise closed to many, gardens open to few". The evening will conclude with 2 films from his elementary triptych, a cycle of films examining the luminous and ecstatic qualities of water and fire and clay, the final of which he left incomplete.

This concept of cinematic and environmental paradise is a poignant idea in the 21st century, and in the exhibition Closed Paradise, artists Javier Viver and Lili Chin expand upon the phenomena of Paradise revealed in small and simple things. 

Please find the attached flyer for the screening. The evening is casual and drinks and beverages are welcome. 

Please RSVP to info@theclementecenter.org. A conversation will follow the screening along with a visit to the exhibition. 

Films included in the program are:

Home movies 1935-38, silent, color, 8 min
Vibraciones de Granada ("Vibrations of Granada") 1935, silent, black and white, 20min
Aguaespejo Granadino ("Water-mirror of Granada")  1944  color, sound, 20 min 
Fuego en Castilla ("Fire in Castille") 1958 color, sound, 17 min 

Program apx 63min 

Date:
Monday, October 26, 2015, at 7:00pm

Location:
The Clemente
107 Suffolk Street 
NY, NY 10002
(btw Delancey and Rivington Street)