This exhibition detailed Méliès’ contribution as a pioneer of the art of cinematography, through the history of the first projector, his films, and his fall into oblivion after creating the companies Star Films and Gaumont. This exhibition gave rise to another abridged version suited to smaller rooms and more limited furnishing possibilities.
The Lumière brothers invented the projector, but it was Georges Méliès who invented cinema. This exhibition claims Méliès as the father of the seventh art, and lays out an overview of the origins of cinematography.
We created scenery that represents a movie set, a scenic machine chock-full of reflections, transparencies, tricks that refer to the resources used by Méliès, who is considered to be a blend of magician and narrator. From the time visitors enter the room, they come into contact with large mirrors that multiply the projections prepared for this exhibition. The first part is devoted to the devices that predated the projector, such as the magic lantern, the kinetoscope, the zoetrope, the praxinoscope or anamorphosis.
Then the exhibition introduces the Lumière brothers, their relationship with Georges Méliès, and how he started shooting his films. This space is dedicated to his film production in its entirety, some 20 years telling stories that culminates with A Trip to the Moon, perhaps the most famous among them. The final part is dedicated to the decline and incomprehension suffered by this heterodox artist after the rise of the big movie companies. Robbed of any role in an industry that was just emerging and which he helped create, he was relegated to working as a humble toy vendor at the Montparnasse train station. As in the work of Méliès, the scenic apparatus is what transports us, through the combination of drama and technique. As Méliès said: "What is life without a little fantasy?"
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Date of public opening: April 2015
Institutional sponsor: Fundació Bancària “La Caixa”
Location: Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, Lleida, Palma
