S/Título #2

António Palolo's first films playfully recombine body parts cut out from magazines that Palolo placed in motion with geometrical shapes. These first engagements with the moving image are in a dialogue with Pop, Dada and Surrealism. Recurrent circles appear throughout the films, echoing Marcel Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema (1926).

In the films Untitled (#6), Untitled (#7) (both 1972–6) and Untitled (#8) (1976–7) images of cells mix with galaxies, underlining the circular shape as a crucial element of Palolo’s work.

António Palolo's first films, shot in 8 mm, are black-and-white animations, constructed according to a cut-and-paste methodology and associating, with great sense of humour, images taken from magazines with geometric elements.

A mysterious genesis, in which abstract thought is constantly transformed into concrete substance, and the microscopic level of things interchanges with the macroscopic representation of the universe. - Culturgest

In the films Untitled (#6), Untitled (#7) (both 1972–6) and Untitled (#8) (1976–7) images of cells mix with galaxies, underlining the circular shape as a crucial element of Palolo’s work.

Under the sign of Amadeo. A century of art.

This film expands this approach to composition by adding an abstract layer of matter to the more representational experiments. The film has two parts. It focuses on the medium’s prime elements (light and motion) and documents several optical interferences with light sources (the sun, lamps, bulbs or candle-flames), creating an abstract collage built out of concrete elements. It’s a line of work that was further developed in Palolo’s later films and is also present in Lights (1972–6). The second half replaces the mundane light sources by magazine images of iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor portrayed by Andy Warhol. These quotes connect the film with a Pop art practice close to Derek Boshier’s Link (1970).

Short film by António Palolo.

Short film by António Palolo.

“In Drawings/Lines, 1971, on top of previously printed film—was he just recycling material or was he deliberately experimenting with a new technique?—Palolo scratched lines directly on the celluloid, imprinting on it a choreography of rhythms and lights. The background images, unified by an overall tone of blue and purple, fluctuate from barely visible to perfectly recognizable, producing a fascinating layered effect with material as diverse as Marlene Dietrich, the Beatles’ yellow submarine, Adolf Hitler, Botticelli’s Venus, and a painting by Magritte.” (Filipa Oliveira)

Manipulating the way the camera captures light and the use of filters, this film configures a kaleidoscope of abstract lights of different colours, reflections, fragmented irises, peepholes, circular forms, flashes of lights in the dark punctuated by images of almost white skies.