On 31 May and 1–2 June 2012 the 1st International Congress on Gesture Mutations in European Cinema took place at the Auditorium of the Communication Campus of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The Congress, organised by the OCEC and the Communication Department and directed by Dr. Ivan Pintor, focused on the discussion of gestuality in the history of European cinema and its contemporary aesthetic tendencies.

The Congress brought together theoreticians based in Spain, such as Xavier Antich, Carlos Losilla or Raffaele Pinto, with international speakers such as Oksana Bulgakova and Dietmar Hochmuth, Victor Stoichita, Gino Frezza, Alain Bergala, Nicole Brenez and Adrian Martin.

Their theoretical contributions, which delineated the evolution of certain gestures in particular national contexts as well as the ressonances between countries, were complemented by presentations by two film-makers: French Philippe Grandrieux and Argentinian Mariano Llinás, the latter in conversation with actress Laura Paredes on the labour of interpretation in cinema. Furthermore, Grandrieux's Il se peut que la beauté ait renforcé notre résolution – Masao Adachi, and Llinás's Historias extraordinarias were also screened.

The Congress also included the presentation of communications focusing on gesture in cinema, as well as the launch of Cuerpo a cuerpo. Radiografías del cine contemporáneo, Domènec Font's posthumous book. Font was the founder of the OCEC and the driving force behind the four editions of the CICEC-MICEC (2004-2008), a series of events focusing on the aesthetic, anthropologic and economic characteristics of contemporary European cinema. The book launch included contributions by Josep Joan Moreso, Chair of the UPF, Miguel Morey, Javier Maqua and Carlos Losilla.



The 1st International Congress on Gesture Mutations in European Cinema stems from the research led by the group CINEMA over recent years and will culminate in the publication of a reader bringing together the papers presented at the Congress as well as analyses by members of the OCEC. On the other hand, the communications will be published electronically on the OCEC's website.