Artifact 71
One thing is clear: The contemporary artist can do without their manual skills and give as much or even more importance to intellectual work than to the artistic object. So, what does an artist do? Artefacto 71 attempts to answer this question by examining the activity of a working-class artist like Catalan Martí Anson. To do this, we do away with the traditional artist interview or experts explaining the issues. Instead, we foster a peer-to-peer dialogue between the artist and the filmmaker.
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Carlos EssmannDirectorMisterios mínimos
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Carlos EssmannWriter
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Carlos EssmannProducer
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Martí AnsonKey Cast"himself"
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Project Title (Original Language):Artefacto 71
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Project Type:Documentary, Experimental, Feature
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Runtime:1 hour 11 minutes
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Completion Date:February 29, 2024
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Production Budget:56,000 EUR
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Country of Origin:Spain
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Country of Filming:Spain
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Language:Catalan
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Shooting Format:Digital 4K, Archives
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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27 Festival de Cine de MálagaMálaga
Spain
March 4, 2024
World
Best Director -
8 Dart International Festival of Art DocumentariesBarcelona
Spain
November 28, 2024
Catalan
Best Director + Audience Award
CARLOS ESSMANN is an Argentinian-Estonian-Spanish filmmaker who studied Mathematics and then Film at Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Santa Fe, Argentina). He has been working in film industry since 1985, mainly in Camera Department, and focused on Documentary film-making.
As a director he began with some video-art work and lately he is exploring the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction storytelling. He awarded grants by Rockefeller and MacArthur Foundations (USA), Fundación Antorchas, Instituto Nacional de Cine (Argentina) and Fundación Carolina (Spain).
Based in Mataró, Spain, since 2002.
Directed:
ZONA INTRUSA 17 (25 min, 2024)
MISTERIOS MINIMOS THE SERIES (10 x 2 min) 2018
ISOLATION (13 min, 2016)
DON VICENTE (15 min, 2015)
MISTERIOS MINIMOS (10 min, 2015)
RETURN OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (10 min, 2013)
THE CITY BORDER (6 min, 2011)
and about a dozen of other short films and video art.
In late 2019, a simple banana taped to a wall at Miami's Art Basel gallery stunned the world when it sold for an unbelievable $120,000. Just like that, it became a piece of art. (Its price has since skyrocketed to $6 million).
But then the pandemic hit, and our attention shifted to more urgent matters. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder: is there a way to explain what an artist truly does? And could that explanation work through film? By the fall of 2020, this thought came back to me, and I found myself thinking about a local artist, Martí Anson, from Mataró.
I first came across Martí in 2005 during a visit to the Centre d'Arts Santa Mònica. There he was, building a sailboat—only he’d made it slightly wider than the doorframe, ensuring it couldn’t leave the room. The boat was destined to stay put, eventually falling apart. That moment perfectly captured Martí’s unique way of thinking.
When Mataró's City Council proposed demolishing a historic building to replace it with an El Corte Inglés department store, they initially suggested constructing a replica of the original. In response, Martí recreated the building in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at a 1:10 scale, offering a creative commentary on the situation.
As public protests against the demolition grew, the City Council revised their plan: instead of outright demolishing the building, they decided to dismantle it piece by piece, catalog the fragments, and store them in a warehouse with the intention of relocating and reconstructing it later. In reaction to this new proposal, Martí transported a chocolate replica of the building from Mataró to Lyon, France, adding another layer of meaning to his artistic response.
With all this in mind, I pitched the idea of making a film about Martí and his work. Around the same time, he was preparing an exhibition at the Fabra i Coats Arts Center. It felt like the perfect chance to document the entire process—from setting up to tearing it down— for a show titled Una exposició de debò (A Straight Exhibition). The film took shape from this sequence, tracing Martí’s artistic journey while weaving in the societal context and key historical moments surrounding it.
Throughout the film, we drop in references to "Prior Issues," such as Professor Splash’s daring 11-meter dive into a 30-centimeter-deep pool, or the reenactment of Walt and Travis’s journey from the desert to Los Angeles in Paris, Texas. Another highlight is the dismantling of the Can Fàbregas building, which resonates with Catalonia’s 2017 Independence Referendum (1-O).
But this film isn’t just about showcasing the methods of a contemporary artist. It’s about uncovering the deep connections between an artist and the social and cultural dynamics of their world. In Martí’s case, this means exploring the Catalan independence movement, the interplay between local and national identity, the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and the disappearance of Caixa Laietana—a bank central to Mataró’s identity.
Finally, the film shifts focus from the celebrated figures of Catalan art, like Jaume Plensa or Antoni Tàpies, to a different kind of artist: someone like Martí. A working-class artist. Someone who earns their living through their craft without the glitz of superstardom. Or, then again... has he?