Kinetic Pieces and Scopic Avant-gardes

Based on the analysis of primary sources and work with the objects in the collection, the project encompasses activities linked to their study, preservation and presentation.
These activities are organized along three main lines of action:

1. Conservation of the objects in the collection and conditinoning of the materials stored in Euskadiko Filmategia-Filmoteca Vasca.
2. Digitization of the materials and/or creation of audiovisual works based on them. 
3. Conceptualization and design of new formulas for the contemporary exhibition of the materials.

The rich and varied Bidegileak audiovisual heritage collection, formed by the Azoulay-Dolhagaray family of collectors of Labour origin before becoming part of the heritage collections of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, presents a wide diversity of moving image objects from the 19th and 20th centuries.

This project has undertaken the conservation works of the collection materials stored at Euskadiko Filmategia-Filmoteca Vasca. A total of 238 units have been cared for:1 90mm film fragment; 11 35mm film reels; 1 28mm film reel; 18 Pathéorama film reels and 1 box; 19 9.5mm film reels; 17 Kinora reels; 24 image discs; 57 image strips; 2 flip books; 1 image strip toy; 5 motion picture strips; 33 motion picture units; 2 anaglyph albums and 2 pairs of 3D glasses; 29 stereoscopic views and 1 box; 1 stereographoscope and 1 stereoscopic viewer; 1 framed lenticular picture unit; 1 fan-shaped rotating viewer; 1 Kinora; 3 kaleidoscopes; 1 praxinoscope and 1 box; 2 zoetropes; 1 Pathéorama viewer and 1 box. 

Once the pieces were conditioned, work has continued on generating digital access images of the objects. The selection of materials was guided by criteria of preservation and historical-artistic value, as well as by curatorial and creative reasons. The specificity of each object determined different workflows: in the cases of anaglyphs and image discs, for example, scanning and subsequent digital image processing were carried out; in the case of Kinora rolls and other objects, specific devices were activated and adapted equipment was used for digital video recording of image, as well as sound. The body of images and sounds generated motivated the creation of the videos presented in the following section.

In addition to working with the pieces preserved at the Euskadiko Filmategia-Filmoteca Vasca, visits were made to Photomuseum Argazki eta Zinema Museoa to explore a selection of pieces from the Bidegileak collection located and exhibited at the museum and to create new images from them.

A selection of moving images of the collection's pieces generated within the framework of the project is exhibited below.

A selection of these moving images has been exhibited at the Photomuseum Argazki eta Zinema Museoa from December 2024 to June 2025. The images were also part of an installation and public exhibition at EQZE in December 2024.

Recovery, research and digitization of the silent film Biarritz y sus alrededores (Compagnie Universelle Cinématographique, 1922) from a 35mm nitrate print, with tinting and toning, from Filmoteca de Andalucía. Inspection, preparation and digitization of the film element at the Conservation and Restoration Center of Filmoteca Española. Digital image processing and treatment in 2deo and Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola.

A collaborative project developed with the Filmoteca de Andalucía and Filmoteca Española. Carried out by the teams of the Filmoteca de Andalucía and Filmoteca Española, Paula García Castro, Luis Alberto Juárez and Maddi Lopez de Arkaute.

The online publication of the digital reproduction of Biarritz y sus alrededores (1922) on Filmoteca Española's platform Flores en la sombra was accompanied by the publication of the text "Sales de plata y sangre de buey" (Maddi Lopez de Arkaute).

Maddi Lopez de Arkaute

Maddi holds a licentiate degree in History of Art from the University of the Basque Country and a MA in Audio-Visual Studies from Complutense University of Madrid. She graduated in the Certificate Program in Film and Media Preservation of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. She has trained in modern and contemporary art museums and film archives such as Anthology Film Archives, Filmoteca Española, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim and MoMA, among others. She has been a tutor at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola since 2022.

Students C07:
Ana Karina de Fátima Barandiarán Urday, Gema Barba Aranda, Josué García Gómez, Martina Laruffa, Saro Vallejo, Simón Jarpa Ruiz

Students C06:
Adolfo Vincenzo Hernández Velásquez, Alejandro Martos, Elvira Arbós, Luis Alberto Juárez, Manuela Gutiérrez Arrieta, Maya Sfakianaki, Saioa Miguel

Students C05:
Celeste Rojas Múgica, Inés Vázquez, Lucía Malandro, Lucía Dellacha, Paolo Tizón, Paula García Castro, Petru-Ioan Pandrea

Related institutions: Gordailua, Euskadiko Filmategia-Filmoteca Vasca, Photomuseum, 2deo, Filmoteca de Andalucía, Filmoteca Española

Chronology of the project: 2022 – 2025