“Bolaño Archive 1977–2003” was a CCCB exhibition that presented the creative chronology of Spanish writer Roberto Bolaño from when he settled in Catalonia in 1977 until he passed away in 2003. I was commissioned to create a visual experience that would immerse visitors into the exhibition.
Bolaño’s preoccupation with state power and repression was fed by scenes like Pinochet´s coup in 1973, the student massacre in Tlatelolco in 1968 and Hitler rallies. A kaleidoscopic tunnel was filled with these historical images, applying a slow motion/ghosty treatment, to immerse the visitor in the mood of the exhibition.
The leitmotif of the tunnel served not only from a conceptual and aesthetic point of view, but also to guide the visitor through the exhibition’s itinerary. The last video in the exhibition, made by Toni Curcó, also had a kaleidoscopic cascade of footage that was incorporated into the first video, effectively bridging the beginning and end of the visitor´s journey.