
Pirate Boys (2018), El jardín de los faunos (2022) and La llum que cobreix les ferides (2024) are three short films by artist, filmmaker and curator Pol Merchan being screened by Col·lectiu 1080 as part of l’Alternativa Hall this year.
Pol Merchan is an artist, filmmaker and curator at the XPOSED Queer Film Festival in Berlin who was nominated for the LICHTER Art Award with his film Pirate Boys and for the Golden Key at the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival with El jardín de los faunos.
His work has been exhibited in international art institutions and film festivals such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Anthology Film Archives in New York, Los Angeles Filmforum, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Rotterdam Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
Pol’s voice rings out loud and clear in these films. And not only Pol’s: we also hear the voices of Rosa Taribó, Del LaGrace Volcano and Kathy Acker, Nazario Luque and Alejandro. In them, we see how the filmmaker captures and interweaves life in all its dimensions, depths and complexities, transforming existence at once inside and outside his own body. Personal problems are political problems; the pain and fragility of an individual is the pain and fragility of a community.
In these interstices, Pol incorporates queer studies into artistic and cinematic methodologies to expose, film and project corporeality and transgender experiences, particularly transmasculinity. Pol’s films always present new ways of experiencing the plasticity of film, in both analogue or digital formats, incorporating literature, biographies, archival materials, photographs and both personal and historical oral narratives. Herein lies Pol’s artistic gesture: the filmmaker’s trans experience goes way beyond any individual situation. By placing a finger in personal wounds, by filming them, Pol also touches the wounds of his queer ancestors.
So when we received the invitation from l’Alternativa Hall to curate an audiovisual session, we thought about exploring the theme of Transforming Bodies, bodies in transition, a topic that has been one of our ongoing fields of research and which was the focus of our very first public programme for the Tuesday Video sessions at the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica. Back then, we questioned modes of production from a trans perspective. We were keen to explore and experiment with methodologies that broke with hegemonic industry norms. Now, on this occasion, we have invited Pol Merchan, who hails from Lleida but lives and works in Berlin, to screen three films that address the notion of transition not only through the body but also through relational mutability and, ultimately, language. After the screening, Col·lectiu 1080 will be talking to Pol about his work and asking the audience to share their own reactions.
(Col·lectiu 1080)
Col·lectiu 1080 is a research collective based at the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica currently made up of Adrià Guardiola, Lola Clavo, Marla Jacarilla, Mònica Rovira, and Renan Camilo. They investigate audiovisual work in a broad sense, particularly its relationship with the contemporary context: the production, reception, discourses, language and temporalities of the image. Their Tuesday Video sessions aim to foster dialogue between the image and critical thought.

- Sunday 17 November, 8 pm
- Hall CCCB
- Screening of shorts and debate
- 50 min
- Free admission



