Frame by Frame was commissioned by Vila do Conde Shorts in 2006 for an exhibition at Solar – Cinematic Art Gallery. The Agência – Portuguese Short Film Agency distributes two of the pieces shown in that
exhibition, Dreamwork and Instructions For a Light and Sound Machine. Both include a sequence of frames, from films of the same title, mounted on a light box and accompanied by a DVD loop with the same sequence.

My artistic work is dedicated to the difference between analogue flm and the digital image world. In my darkroom, the “Manufracture“, I develop films by using an archaic contact printing process that emphasizes the specific, plastic qualities of film. Concretely speaking, I create without a camera, working directly with the flm strip and undertaking various physical manipulations. I use mainly “found” film footage as a starting point: Hollywood movies, amateur films, diverse reel headers, etc… I primarily print the material frame by frame, using a notable variety of light sources: I use a cone of light emitted from an enlarger (L’Arrivée), the red beam of a laser -pointer (Outer Space, Dream Work), and diverse miniature flash lights (Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine). The technically prescribed limitations of single film frames are often overstepped during this printing process. It is in these moments that what I would like to call “invisible cinema” is born: artistic elements of the film arise which can not be seen in the movie theatre. For one, the pictures fly by at 24 frames per second, thanks to the projector.
And then there’s the immovable framing of the image, again as imposed by the projector which only reveals a certain portion of the film strip. By examining unmoving pieces of celluloid, hidden structures created in the darkroom are revealed, making palpable the unique quality of the physical flm strip as a
specific, irreplaceable medium.
The exhibition Frame by Frame hopes to unfold these invisible worlds and make them accessible to the eye.