Punto y Raya Festival: highlights of the coming 8th edition

Punto y Raya Festival will finally arrive in Lisbon, Portugal, featuring five days of pure form, colour, movement and sound. This benchmark event for Abstract Art in Motion will take place from October 11 to 15, 2023 at multiple venues, including Cinemateca Portuguesa, Cinema Fernando Lopes, Universidade Lusófona, Museu de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas Artes, Escola Superior de Música, and Caleidoscópio UL. As always, we will celebrate notable recent achievements, revisit great classics, delve into the creative process of key artists, and provide meeting points for creators and enthusiasts of the genre.

PUNTO y RAYA FESTIVAL 2023 TEASER by Joāo Levezinho (PT)

 

ACTIVITIES PROGRAMME

The PyR 2023 Competition features 104 short filmsfrom 33 countries, structured into six 75-minute reels. The programmes will be screened in 4K at Cinema Fernando Lopes, with prizes totalling € 3.000 and PyR23 Statuettes.

We will begin with a Portuguese Short Film Panorama curated by MONSTRA Festival (PT). Radostina Neykova (BG, WFAF Festival) will introduce her Abstract Animation from the Balkans Panorama. Additionally, we have an International Student Film programme, with a presentation by Sandra Ramos & David Novack (PT, Lusófona U).

 

MasterClasses + Retrospectives will immerse us in the body of work and creative processes of distinguished artists: Larry Cuba (US), Zeno van den Broek (NL), Tina Frank (AT), José-Manuel Xavier (PT), Bret Battey (UK), and Julius Horsthuis (NL).

Ícaro Pintor + Bernardo Santo Tirso (PT) will transport us with their live drawing and multimedia improvisation IFTING#. Tina Frank + General Magic (AT) will move us with their meticulously crafted Super Key set. And Zeno van den Broek’s Breach (NL) will drop us right at the centre of a complex system teetering on the brink of chaos.

The PyR 2023 Exhibition, hosted in five spaces throughout the city, features video installations and VR experiences by the following artists:

Julius Horsthuis (NL), Ícaro Pintor (PT), Larry Cuba (US), Bret Battey (UK), Max Hattler (HK), Robert Seidel (DE), and Paul Fletcher (AU).

The Museu de Lisboa - Palácio Pimenta will host playful abstract animation Workshops for children & their families over the weekend, tutored by Fernando Galrito (PT) and Radostina Neykova (BG).

The eighth edition of the "most abstract festival in the world" is a co-production by MAD (ES, creators of Punto y Raya) and Taumotrópio Lda. (PT, creators of MONSTRA Lisbon Animation Festival), with financial support from the European Commission, OSIC Programme - Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual.