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    Gala Hernández López is an artist, filmmaker, and researcher. She lives and works between Paris, Berlin and Spain. Her interdisciplinary practice spans film production, video installations, performances, and publications, employing these varied mediums as avenues for epistemological inquiry. Her work delves into new forms of subjectivity shaped by computational capitalism, examining the imaginaries and narratives circulating within virtual communities, as well as the fantasies and futurities inspired by disruptive technologies—shared fictions that permeate our collective unconscious. At the core of her practice is an ecofeminist sensitivity that weaves through her research-driven artworks, blending materialist critique with poetry, intimacy, and dreams, all aimed at dissecting human desires for techno-scientific control over reality.

    Her work has been screened and exhibited internationally, including Berlinale, DOK Leipzig, Cinéma du Réel, IndieLisboa, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, BIEFF, Punto de Vista, transmediale, Documenta Madrid, iMAL, FRAC Ile de France, FRAC Corsica, Raindance, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Tabakalera Donosti, Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, York Art Gallery, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and the Salon de Montrouge, among others. Her film La Mécanique des fluides won the César for Best Documentary Short film in 2024.

    She was an artist in residence at the Academy of France in Spain – Casa de Velázquez in Madrid 2023-2024. She has given artistic research workshops and lecture-performances at the Filmuniversität Konrad Wolf, the Locarno Film Festival, the ECAM (Escuela de Cinematografía y del Audiovisual de la Comunidad de Madrid), the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Marseille and Festival Márgenes. She has presented her research at Harvard University, Goldsmiths University of London, University of Michigan, University of British Columbia, University of Copenhagen and UQAM, among others.

    Her film La Mécanique des fluides (2022) is the first of a series of films proposing a reflection on the processes of individuation in its articulation with algorithms and digital flows of data and capital. It is followed by the short for here am i sitting in a tin can far above the world (2024) which had its World premiere at Berlinale – Forum Expanded in February 2024. The last piece of the series, +10K, currently in production, was selected in Berlinale Short Form Station, was awarded the Bremen Video Art Award 2023, the Fonds Régional pour les Talents Émergents (FoRTE) 2023, Fonds d’aide à la création immersive of the CNC, ICAA, France Télévisions and the Production Grant of Casa de Velázquez. After this first trilogy of short essay films, she is currently developing her first non-fiction feature film, Dreams of prophets – for which she has been awarded a 2024 Fine Arts Leonardo Grant from the BBVA Foundation, a 2024 La Caixa Production Grant, a 2024 Science New Wave Fund award and which is part of Lo Schermo dell’arte’s VISIO Lab. In 2024, Gijón Film Festival has programmed the first monographic focus of her work.

    She is a PhD Candidate in Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of Arts at Université Paris 8, ESTCA laboratory.  Her artistic research project reflects on screen capture in post-internet film and art. She has been an ATER/Assistant Professor in Visual Studies and Digital Art at the Université Gustave Eiffel, after having taught for 3 years at Université Paris 8. She was a DAAD fellow at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf (Germany).

    In 2024-2025, she will be an associate professor in the Master’s program in Scenography and Art Direction at BAU – Center of Art and Design of Barcelona and an artist in residence at La Friche of Palais de Tokyo and Chateau Éphémère in France, York University / Connected Minds / Sensorium in Canada, Malt AIR Residence in Denmark and Schloss Wiepersdorf in Germany. 

    She co-founded and co-direct the research and creation collective After Social Networks.

    She is represented by Sylvain Cochard from the Film Talents agency.

    She has edited several issues of academic journals (Multitudes, Images Secondes, Contratexto), published in international journals (Interfaces, Digital War, Marges, Augenblick, Écrans, Études digitales, Studies in Documentary Film) and participated in books, such as Captures d’écran (Yellow Now, 2022), L’art tout contre la machine (Hermann, 2021), Codes, races, climats, habitudes (Les Presses du réel, 2023) or Radical film, art and digital media for societies in turmoil  (K-Verlag, 2023). She is a member of the editorial board of La Revue Documentaires.

     She has been artist in residence at La Métive (FR), Vidéoformes (FR) and Maison Artagon (FR). She has been a jury member at SEMINCI Valladolid 2023, of the SCAM Award at Vidéoformes 2024 and at FIFIB 2024. 

    She graduated in Filmmaking from ESCAC (Superior School of Cinema and Audiovisuals of Catalonia, Barcelona) and holds a Master in Contemporary Cinema and Audiovisuals Studies from University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) and the International Master in Audiovisual and Cinema Studies (IMACS) from Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle University and Paris 10 – Nanterre University.

    She has published poems in some online magazines and fanzines (El Coloquio de los Perros, digo.palabra.txt, El vuelo del flamenco, Manifiesto azul…), and a poetry plaquette with the publisher Ad Minimum: Amnesia of the birds (2016).

    She has translated Marie-José Mondzain’s Images (à suivre) into Spanish for the publisher Metales Pesados (Chile).

    ACTIVITIES
    PUBLICATIONS
    NON-ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
    EDITORIAL WORK
    CONFERENCE & SYMPOSIUMS PAPERS
    • “Un homme vu de loin. Animisme et pensée écologique dans Histoire(s) de glace“, Colloque « L’Archipel Raoul Ruiz », 31 may – 2 june 2023, Université Bordeaux Montaigne.
    • “Films machinima: notes sur un cinéma amateur virtuel”, conference « Les pratiques amateurs. Eclaircies du cinéma », 8-10 november 2022, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne.
    • “L’image que jamais nous ne verrons deux fois. Télévision, plateformes de livestreaming et cinéma face à l’illusion d’immédiatie”, with Ariane Papillon, Colloque International des Études Françaises et Francophones du XX et XXIème siècles “Média/médiums”, University of Pittsburgh, 24-26 March 2022.
    • « S’approprier l’effondrement », with Allan Deneuville, Ariane Papillon & Ysé Sorel, symposium « L’art face aux urgences écologiques », organised by the journal Marges, 9 & 16 Octobre 2021, online.
    • “Sexe, mensonges et vidéo. À propos des régimes de vérité de l’intime”, in the conference “La preuve par l’image. Le médium contre les média”, organised by Dork Zabunyan and Aurélie Ledoux at Paris 10-Nanterre University, 23-24 June 2021.
    • “The Importance of Being Broadcast. Politics and Poetics of Virtual Visuality in Present. Perfect. by Shegze Zhu”, 109th College of Art Association Annual Conference (USA), 10-13th February 2021, online.
    • “Migrant Images. Migratory and digital flows in contemporary documentary cinema”, virtual conference “Arrêt sur images”, organised by the research team “Archiver le présent” of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM, Canada), 6-9 October 2020.
    • “Impossible movements: refugee crisis and the between-the-images in Havarie by Philip Scheffner”, in the international virtual symposium “(Im)possibility”, organized by the doctoral students of the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies of Harvard University, at Harvard University (USA), 8-10 October 2020.
    • “Common Images. What post-media does to cinema”, in the international conference “Critique de la Raison Automatique. Bêtise(s) et intelligence(s) de la numérisation du monde”, at the Gaîté Lyrique and the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, fall 2020.
    • “Appropriations and critical diversions of the vernacular video: the vernacular genre as a cinematographic genre” in the international colloquium “Les manières de faire vernaculaires”, organized by the laboratory LARCA, at the University of Paris 7 and at the INHA, from January 22nd to 24th, 2020.
    • « Poétique de la navigation comme flux de pensée: « Sitting in Darkness » de Graeme Arnfield », International Congress « L’essai médiatique », organized by the labs LISAA (Université Paris Est Marne-la-Vallée UPEM), EHIC (Université de Limoges), the Université de Bologne and the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, at the Université Paris Est, 25-27 November 2019.
    • « Films on crisis, in crisis. Concerning « Havarie » by Philip Scheffner », International Congress « Filmic and Media Narratives of the Crisis: Contemporary Representations », organized by the Université Panteion, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, Université Haute-Alsace, Centre d’Études sur la Communication Européenne, l’IRMÉCCEN and the PHILéPOL of Université Paris Descartes, at the French Institute of Athens, Greece, 7-8 November 2019.
    • “Ecologies of the videosphere: about ‘Roman National'”, at the International Congress “L’art tout contre la machine”, organized by the Collège des Bernardins, the laboratory RIRRA21 (University Paul Valery Montpellier 3) and the laboratory ESTCA (Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis) at the Collège des Bernardins and the INHA, Paris, 10-11 October 2019.
    • “Silvered Water Syria Self-Portrait: the camera, a weapon against the regime?”, lectured in the conference “Regime-critical media and Arab diaspora: challenges and opportunities after the Arab spring”, organized by the Mediatized Diaspora Team: Controversial Policies among Arab Media Users in Europe (MEDIASP), Department of Intercultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 5-6 September 2019.
    • “Dialectizing YouTube, reconstructing the revolution”, lectured in the Ludovia Summer University “Digital and representations”, organized by the association Culture Numérique, in Ax-les-Thermes, France, 20-23 August 2019.
    • “Desktop films: the act of seeing with someone else’s eyes”, lecture in “Radical Ventriloquism: Acts of speaking through and speaking for” organized by Lee Campbell Christabel Harley, London Conference in Critical Thought (LCCT), Centre for Invention and Social Process, Goldsmiths, University of London, 5-6 July 2019.
    • “Vernacular video in the post-Internet era” lectured at the Conference ” Forms and places of the virtual: first cartography “, organized by Guillaume Soulez, Olga Kobryn, Éric Thouvenel, Ángel Quintana and Lisa Zaher. IRCAV Laboratory (Sorbonne Nouvelle University – Paris 3) and University of Girona, at the Centre of the University of Chicago in Paris, 20-21 June 2019.
    • “Confession in the Web 2.0 era: ‘Testament Series’ by Natalie Bookchin (2009-2017)”, in the workshop “Pour une cartographie des récits de soi: de l’autobiographie aux webcams” of the Annual Congress of the APFUCC, Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 1-4 June 2019.
    • “Recycling vernacular video from areas in social and political conflict”, lectured at the conference ‘What is Radical film? – Radical film Network Meeting’, organised by Julia Lazarus and Ursula Böckler in cooperation with the Harun Farocki Institute, at the Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin, 2-5 May 2019.
    OTHER CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
    • Unblocked and Unchained Symposium, Université Paris 8, France, December 2024.
    • Escola de Pensament, Barcelona, Nov. 2024
    • Imagen y verdad, radio debate on Radio 3, Sept. 2024
    • Crypto-economies, speculative futures and post-capitalist desires, workshop at  Confronting Digital Capitalism – Lake Como Summer School, Italy, September 2024.
    • Workshop @ Nouvelle Bug Vol. 3, Lago Film Fest, Italy, August 2024.
    • Artist talk @ Union Docs, New York, June 2024.
    • Nuevas narrativas, tecnología e inteligencia artificial en el cine contemporáneo. Conversation with Bertrand Bonello @ Syncro Film Lab, Argentina, June 2024.
    • Artist talk @ Digital IDEAS 2024, Digital Studies Institute, University of Michigan, USA, June 2024.
    • Artist talk @ Ensayar lo Real, University Pompeu Fabra, Spain, May 2024.
    • Artist talk @ Kunsthochschule Kassel, April 2024.
    • Le paradigme forensique, workshop at Beaux Arts de Marseille with Allan Deneuville, invited by Marion Balac, March 2024.
    • Hard, fast and beautiful, Berlin Critic’s Week, february 2024 (guest panelist).
    • « Cine ensayo post-internet e investigaciones en fuentes abiertas », workshop at ECAM, Madrid, January 2024.
    • A beautiful blonde in her twenties who is in love with me @ “Máquinas que sueñan”, La Casa Encendida, Festival Márgenes, 2nd December 2023, Madrid.
    • Roland Barthes among the machines @ Long night of dreaming about the future of intelligence, 9th August, Locarno Film Festival 2023.
    • « Post-internet essay films and open source investigations », workshop at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Potsdam, Germany, june 2023.
    • Participation in the round table « L’Année documentaire » organised by Tënk at the Clermont-Ferrand International Shortfilm Festival 2023.
    • « Thinking, investigating and creating after social networks », conference with Allan Deneuville at the École supérieure d’arts et médias de Caen/Cherbourg, January 23rd 2023.
    • « Open source counter investigations », conference with Allan Deneuville at the École supérieure d’art et design de Saint-Étienne, February 3rd 2023.
    • Participation in a conversation around the film HUA HUA’s Dazzling World and its Myriad Temptations as part of the carte blanche at the feminist film club TONNERRE of @clitrevolution at FIFIB Bordeaux, October 2022.
    • Participation to the round table “Documenter, expérimenter et réfléchir les socialités numériques”, international conference Remodeler nos interactions numériques. La subjectivité à l’ère du post-cinéma, Centre Pompidou & Columbia Global Center, Paris, 22-24 may 2022.
    • Performed lecture « Heureux qui comme Dylan », international conference Images en tr@nsit, Aix Marseille Université, 27-29 April 2022.
    • Performed lecture “CINEMA ft. Yellow Vests – We’re coming to get you at home (Remix)”, with Seumboy Vrainom :€, in the international conference “La manifestation politique au cinéma. Continuités, ruptures, détournements de l’expérience contestataire “, organized by Camille Bui and Raphaël Jaudon, at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, on January 31st and February 1st, 2020.
    • Video lecture “Video en mp plz: porno-politics of the visual virtual”, with Allan Deneuville, in the international online conference “The circulation of images”, organized by the Center of Excellence Jean Monnet IMAGO (École normale supérieure, Paris) and the the University of Geneva (Chair of Digital Humanities), in partnership with Purdue University and the Beaux Arts de Paris, 15-18th June 2020.
    • Participation in the online round table « Appropriation of domestic cinema » organised by the FICC – Festival de Cine de Cartagena (Spain), 25th November 2020.
    • Presentation, with Allan Deneuville, of the activities of the association After Social Networks, Rencontres ArTeC, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, 6-7 October 2021.
    ORGANISATION of SCIENTIFIC and ARTISTIC EVENTS
    TRANSLATION
    • Imágenes (para seguir), Marie-José Mondzain, Ed. Metales Pesados, Chile, 2023. Co-translated with Ignacio Albornoz.
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