Founded 25 years ago by Jesús Robles, Ocho y Medio is a bookstore that has gradually become a cultural meeting point.
It has always been a diverse space open to an eclectic audience — men and women of all ages.
Many figures from the worlds of film, theater, and literature have left their mark on the bookstore’s walls. Ocho y Medio is dedicated above all to the world of entertainment, and especially everything related to the audiovisual arts. Books on directors, actors, filmmaking techniques, DVDs, and much more fill its shelves — along with a carefully curated selection of fiction and essays.
The language of cinema has been in constant transformation since its inception. Currently, we live in an increasingly homogeneous mediatized cinematography according to the model imposed by Hollywood. In contrast to this, we find ways of narrating such as «El Cine ha Muerto», «Axel» and «Cinema» where an ode to cinema is proposed that moves away from the dominant trend and approaches the intimate vision of each author.
In “El Cine ha Muerto” by Juan Benitez Allassia, the viewer undertakes a journey through memory in which past and present are intertwined. It is an intimate and nostalgic portrait of a small movie theater that the author frequented during his childhood.
Santiago Carlini, for his part, presents his short documentary “Axel”. In this artwork we enter his imagination, through the purity of his gaze the main character shares his vision of cinema and its veracity.
Finally we find “Cinema” by Telmo Ribeiro, where it is discovered that perhaps in this game between reality and fiction lies the essence of the human condition through fragments of films.
A new edition of PROYECTOR is back with more news than ever!
The PROYECTOR Platform intended for Images of Movement gives voice to non-cinematic normative proposals; pieces that seek the relationship with the body, the scale and the space that houses them; pieces that need a viewer to get involved, to be present around the piece to be able to understand them in their entirety.
From September 6th to 17th, 2023, more than twenty spaces in the city of Madrid intersected, showing new languages and formats through some 100 pieces of expanded cinema, performance, video art, site-specific pieces, interactive pieces and unique works.
The collaborating venues are creating a cultural route giving visibility to both the most independent and the most consolidated spaces, going from the central areas to the outskirts neighborhoods of the capital.
We find proposals both curated by the PROYECTOR platform and by the galleries and museums themselves that are part of the OFF Tour. As always, our selection included works by invited artists and artists selected by an international public call whose jury was Rosell Meseguer, Guillermo G. Peydró and Carlos T. Mori. Likewise, we have collaborations, such as the usual Loops.Expanded, Miden, PLAY and Fonlad. All the pieces on display have been grouped into curatorships differentiated by their current themes. Two of the pieces most valued by the jury will be awarded the Hertzog Da Silva Prize.
