Valentina Alvarado Matos's epistolary films screen at Lofoten International Art Festival

Venezuelan artist Valentina Alvarado Matos presented her 2020 film series 'Film Letters I-IV' at the 2024 Lofoten International Art Festival in Norway. The four four-minute Super 8 films feature grainy textures and voiceover narration addressed to someone named Nazli, exploring themes of communication and loneliness. Curated by Kjersti Solbakken under the title SPARKS, the biennial focused on information movement through technologies like telegraph lines. Matos's work was shown in photobooth-style 'micocinemas' created by artists Ruth Aitken and Sarah Schipschack, with installations in shipping terminals on Svolvær and Tromsø islands. Viewers could travel between locations via commercial liner, echoing the festival's themes of connection. The Lofoten Line, Norway's first telegraph line outside the main network completed in October 1861, inspired the biennial's exploration of communication history. Matos, born in 1986 in Maracaibo and based in Barcelona, works across collage, film, and ceramics, addressing diasporic identities and language. Her films were screened from 27 February to 27 March 2025 as part of Art Lovers Movie Club on artreview.com.