bio / cv

Paola Vela (b. 1973) Lima, PE. Artist & Filmmaker.

I work with moving images to build representations of portraits about artists, friends or performers (non-professional actors). This allows me to explore interactions between subjects, objects and spaces to analyze codes, rules and tacit ways that appear as a result of highly internalized and rooted habits. For that, I use the potential of audiovisual language through strategies from video art, documentary and experimental film.

CV

HIGHER EDUCATION STUDIES [Since 2019] Pursuing a Ph.D. in Science and Technology of the Arts. Escola das Artes. Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. Porto, PT. Main Subject: Experimentalisms in Peruvian Cinema. Discipline: Cinema and Moving Images. [2016] M.A. in Visual Anthropology. Main Subject: Habitus, artists, creative process. Discipline: Visual Art and Anthropology, Documentary Film and Video. Thesis: Rutinas, un documental etnográfico desde un espacio de formación artística. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Posgraduate Studies. Lima, PE. [2011] Licentiate in Fine Arts. Main Subject: Memory. Discipline: Video Art, Experimental Film. Thesis: 1977, Reconstrucción de la memoria en imágenes en movimiento a través de la práctica del Found Footage. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Fine Arts. Lima, PE. [1997] B. F. A. (Hons) Main Subject: Landscape, Bestiary. Discipline: Printmaking (Etching). Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Fine Arts. Lima, PE.

CERTIFICATES [2019] Certificate in Critical Theory. 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos. Ciudad de México, MX. [2014] Diploma in Visual Anthropology. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Lima, PE.

RESIDENCIES, PROGRAMS AND WORKSHOPS [2022] :: Lima :: Loop :: Lab. 16mm Filmmaking Workshop. Lima, PE. [2020] Risograph Workshop. Organized by Bicho and Espacio Los Unicos. Lima, PE. [2019] Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema. Workshops and Master Classes with Juliäo Sarmento (PT), Atom Egoyan (CA), Ana Vaz (BR), Todd Solondz (US), Joao Maria Gusmao (PT) & Pedro Paiva (PT). Escola das Artes. Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. Porto, PT. / Workshop ‘In the Island EICTV with Lav Diaz’ (PH). Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión EICTV. San Antonio de los Baños, CU. [2018] Workshop ‘The Cinema and its Lies’ with Mariano Llinás (AR). Collaboration between TransLAB and Espacio Fundación Telefónica. Lima, PE. / Jan van Eyck Academie ‘Like an Artist’. Project in collaboration with Maastricht University.  Position: Researcher / Artist in Residence. Maastricht, NE. [2015] TransLAB. Cinema Laboratory Work in Progress with Nicolás Pereda (MX) and José Luis Torres Leiva (CL). TRANSCINEMA Film Festival. Lima, PE. [2013] Workshop for Contemporary Artists with Tacita Dean (UK). Fundación Botín, Villa Iris. Santander, ES. [2010] Workshop ‘Video Art: Found Object’ with Aernout Mik (NE). Espacio Fundación Telefónica. Lima, PE. [2008] VI Berlinale Talent Campus. Selected as director and visual artist. Master Classes with Andrzej Wajda (PL), Dusan Makavejev (CS), Julie Delphy (FR) & Mike Leigh (UK). 58th Berlinale Film Festival. Berlin, DE.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS [Since 2020] Associate Professor (Full - Time). Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Fine Arts and Design. Lima, PE. [2019 - 2017] Tenured Assistant Professor (Full -Time). Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Fine Arts and Design. Lima, PE. [2017 – 2014] Tenured Track Assistant Professor. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Fine Arts and Design. Lima, PE. [2016 – 2014] Lecturer. Corriente Alterna School of Visual Arts. Lima, PE. [2014 – 2012] Lecturer. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. School of Fine Arts and Design. Lima, PE.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES [2023] Member of the Jury. Contemporary Art Prize ICPNA. Lima, PE. / Member of the Jury. Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. Experimental Film Competition. Lima, PE. [2022] Member of the Jury. National Competition of New Media Projects. Ministry of Culture - DAFO. Lima, PE. / Member of the Jury. International Short Film Competition. Lima Alterna Film Festival. Lima, PE. / Member of the Jury. Video Danza ICPNA. Lima, PE. [2019] Member of the Jury. ExperimentALESTE. AL ESTE Film Festival. Lima, PE. [2018] Member of the Jury. National Competition of New Media Projects. Ministry of Culture - DAFO. Lima, PE.  [2016] Member of the Jury. International Competition. TRANSCINEMA Film Festival. Lima, PE. [Since 2014] Member of Torvus Studio Organization. Video Art and Experimental Film Production Company. Lima, PE.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS [2023 - 2026] Stipend for Research-Creation PUCP. Lima, PE. [2023] Research Recognition for Academic Papers (RI) PUCP. Lima, PE. / Winner. Annual Creative Projects Competition (CAP) PUCP. [2022] Winner. ProArt Artistic Production Prize. PUCP. Lima, PE. / Research Recognition for Academic Papers (RI) PUCP. Lima, PE. [2021] Winner. ProArt Artistic Production Prize. PUCP. Lima, PE. [2019] Winner. National Competition of Film Projects Ministry of Culture - DAFO. National Competition of Experimental Films. Lima, PE. / Winner. ProArt Artistic Production Prize. PUCP. Lima, PE. / Winner. 2nd Contemporary Art Prize ICPNA. Lima, PE. / Mention. 2nd Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. Feature Film Competition. Lima, PE. [2018] Mention. National Competition of Film Projects Ministry of Culture - DAFO. National Competition of Experimental Films. Lima, PE. [2013] Stipend. Fundación Botín. Santader, ES. [2009] Recommendation of the Jury. Videonale 12. Bonn, DE. [2008] Stipend. Goethe Institute. 6th Berlinale Talent Campus. 58th Berlin Film Festival. Berlin, DE. [2001] Finalist & Nominate Artist. International Small Engraving Salon. Carbunari, RO. [1997] Mention. 27th National Printmaking Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. / Clorox Award for Excellence in Printmaking. School of Fine Arts PUCP. Lima, PE. [1996] Mention. 26th National Printmaking Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. / Winternitz Award for Excellence in Printmaking. School of Fine Arts PUCP. Lima, PE. [1995] Mention. 25th National Printmaking Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. / Winternitz Award for Excellence in Printmaking. School of Fine Arts PUCP. Lima, PE.

SOLO SCREENINGS / EXHIBITIONS [2021] ‘The Wandering Image’. Paola Vela Solo Exhibition. Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano ICPNA. Venancio Shinki Hall. Lima, PE. [2015] Paola Vela. In Focus. Short Films. 3rd TRANSCINEMA Film Festival. Armando Robles Godoy Hall. Lima, PE.

SCREENINGS / FILM FESTIVALS OR GROUP EXHIBITIONS [2024] Drifts of Peruvian Found Footage. Galeria de Artes Visuales Ccori Wasi. Lima, PE. / Projections session. Visual explorations. Session of experimental cinema. Lima Art Museum MALI. Lima, PE. [2023] CEL Cine Experimental Latinoamericano. Mutaciones ((Audio))Visuales. Zumzeig Cinema. Barcelona, ES. / 17th Juan Downey International Media and Audiovisual Arts Competition. 16th Santiago Media Arts Biennial Trueno. Santiago, CL. / Contemporary Perspectives. New acquisitions in the ICPNA collection 2015-2023. Juan Pardo Heeren Space. Lima, PE. /  [Capital]ismos Capitales Vol. 2. Proyección de trabajos en 16mm. Lima, PE. / Latin America x Women. Shorts and Documentary Films. CCPUCP. Lima, PE. [2022] 5° Frontera Sur. International Non Fiction Film Festival. Echoes of Own Territories. Concepción, CL. / 5° Frontera Sur. International Non Fiction Film Festival. Peruvian Cartographies Traversed: Heterogenous Routes and Horizons in Five Decades of Audiovisual Production. Concepción, CL. / Capitalismos :: Capitales :: 5 visiones de problemas capitales. Películas cortas en 16mm. Caja Negra Teatro Municipal. Lima, PE. / 14° Filmocorto. 26° Festival de Cine de Lima PUCP. Lima, PE. / 3° FAS Feria de Artes. Videoart selection. Lima, PE. / Online Exhibition. Hacker Edition Ultracinema & MUTA Internacional Festival of Audiovisual Appropriation. Nayarit, MX. / Capitalismos :: Capitales :: 5 visiones de problemas capitales. Películas cortas en 16mm. Plaza Municipal Barranco. Lima, PE. [2021]  8° Corriente. Encuentro Latinoamericano de No Ficción. Peruvian Cartographies Traversed: Heterogenous Routes and Horizons in Five Decades of Audiovisual Production. Lima, PE. / 7° Film Week - University of Lima. Peruvian Film Competition. Lima, PE. / Antiviral: Peruvian Video Art. CCPUCP. Lima, PE. / Cinema di Seconda Mano. Cagliari, IT / 3rd Encounter of Peruvian Women Writers. Short Film Exhibition. ICPNA. Lima, PE. / 2° Festival Lima Alterna. Peruvian Panorama. Lima, PE. / MUTA Internacional Festival of Audiovisual Appropriation. ((Audio))Visual Mutations. Lima, PE. / 25° Lima Film Festival. DAFO Winners 2019-2020. Lima, PE. / CURTACINEMA Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival. Latin American Panorama. Rio de Janeiro, BR. / 3rd Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. Latin American Short Film Competition. Lima, PE. [2020] ULTRAcinema. Experimental Film and Found Footage. Nayarit, MX. /ExperimentAlEste Competition - Al Este Film Festival. Lima, PE. / TRANSCINEMA Post Verano. Online Special. Lima, PE. [2019] ’Transmutation of Truth’. 2nd Biennial of Unused. Brazil - Peru Cultural Center. Lima, PE. / ‘Real Transmutation’. 8th Exquisito Biennial. Olho Latino Museum. Atibaia, BR. / 7th TRANSCINEMA International Film Festival. Peruvian Short Film Competition. Lima, PE / 5th Film Week - University of Lima. Short Film Competition. Lima, PE / ‘Post Festival’ Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. Amaru Cinema. Ayacucho, PE. / ‘Post Festival’ Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. UNMSM - Faculty of Arts. Lima, PE. / 10th CineMigrante. Buenos Aires, AR. / Lima Photo Fair. Art Project Presentations. Lima, PE. / 2nd Cinema Rabia. University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Buenos Aires, AR. / 8th Video Art Festival Camagüey, CU. / 2nd Contemporary Art Prize ICPNA. Lima, PE. / 2nd Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. Feature Film Competition. Lima, PE. / 2nd Made by Women Peruvian Film Festival. Documentary Short Film Competition. Lima, PE. / 2nd Experimental Cinema Exhibition ‘The Eye Focuses’. Cinemateca de la Casa de la Cultura. Quito, EC. [2018] Peruvian Contemporary Cinema. University of the Arts. Guayaquil, EC. / ‘Ghost Cities’. Shortfilms projections. La Noche de Barranco. Lima, PE. / Female Experimental Cinema. Politics of the Image in Latin America. CINEMAMUSEO. Cuenca, EC. / 6th TRANSCINEMA International Film Festival. Memories Section. Lima, PE. / 4th Film Week - University of Lima. 3rd Feature Film Competition. Lima, PE. / 5th Radical Film Festival - Peruvian Radicalisms Section. Simon I. Patiño Center. La Paz, BO. / 3rd Ethnographic Film Festival - Other Ethnographies. FLACSO Cinema Hall. Quito, EC. / 5th Master in Visual Anthropology MAV Week. Auditorium Central Library PUCP. Lima, PE. / 8th Lima Independiente International Film Festival. Cultural Center of Spain. Lima, PE. / 1st ‘Like an Artist’ Exhibition. Jan van Eyck Academie. Maastricht, NE. / 5th Transcinematic Sessions. Armando Robles Godoy Hall. Lima, PE. [2017] 5th TRANSCINEMA International Film Festival. Section ‘Spaces’. CCPUCP & Armando Robles Godoy Hall. Lima, PE. / 1st MUTA International Exhibition of Audiovisual Appropriation. Lima, PE. [2016] A new cinema in Peru. Independent Panorama of Peruvian Cinema. House of the Peruvian Literature & Cinema Club ‘Invisible’. Lima, PE. / Complexity and Diversity in New Peruvian Cinema. Cinema Club Cayetano Heredia. Lima, PE. / Drifts. Experiments in Contemporary Video. Luis Miró Quesada Hall. Lima, PE. [2015] Peruvian Audiovisual Melting Pot. Zumzeig Cinema. Barcelona, ES. / Beyond the Form: A Conceptual Language. Winternitz Hall. Lima, PE. [2014] A new medium. History of Peruvian Video. Pancho Fierro Gallery. Lima, PE. / 10th Gainesville Latino Film Festival. CINExperimental Section. Wooly Hall. Florida, US. / First Festival of Lost Image. Museum of Memory, Tolerance and Inclusion LUM. Lima, PE. [2013] Insurgency in movement: Anthology of Peruvian Audiovisual Margins. Lima Art Museum MALI. Lima, PE.Projects Presentations. Villa Iris. Santander, ES. [2012] Nomades Borders II. Territorial Interference – Artistic Flows. Church and Convent of Santo Domingo – Qorikancha. Cusco, PE. / Nomades Borders II. Territorial Interference – Artistic Flows. Olho Latino-Atibaja Museum. Curitiba, BR. [2011] Nomades Borders II. Territorial Interference – Artistic Flows. Metropolitan University of Education Sciences Hall. Santiago, CL. [2010] 3rd Festival Film Cine//B_3. Santiago de Chile, CL. / XIV Lima Film Festival. Short Films Digital Section. Lima, PE. / VAE11. First National Video Art Competition. Lima, PE. / Festival of the Nations. Ebensee, AT. / 28th Marché de la Poésie. Place Saint Sulpice. Paris, FR. / Oslo Screen Festival. Filmes Hus. Oslo, NO. / FALA Audio Audiovisual Festival. Lambayeque, PE. [2009] Videonale 12. Kunstmuseum. Bonn, DE. / 6th F.I.F.E. Internacional Experimental Film Festival Carbunari. Maramures, RO. / 19th INVIDEO International ExhibitionVideo & Cinema Beyond. Spazio Oberdan. Milan, IT. / 2nd Videoholica. International Video Art Festival. Varna, BG. [2008] XII Lima Film Festival. Short Films Digital Section. Lima, PE. [2007] XXIV Bogota Film Festival. 3 AnimaCine Section. Bogota, CO. [2006] X Lima Film Festival. Short Films Digital Section. Lima, PE. / 7th Ovalle Film Festival. Short Film Competition. Ovalle, CL. / 4th Bolivarian Film and Video Day. Santa Marta, CO. / Happy Hour/Peruvian Video. Centro Fundación Telefónica. Lima, PE. [2005] Tokio International Mini-Print Triennal.Tama Art University. Tama, JP. [2004] Lima Prints. Pancho Fierro Gallery. Lima, PE. [2003] Latin American Art. J.M. Moudy Exhibition Hall. Texas, USA. / Print Exhibition. Pratt Institute. New York, USA. [2001] International Small Engraving Salon. Florean Museum. Maramures, RO. [1999] Contemporary Peruvian Prints. Wiesse Bank Gallery. Lima, PE. [1998] Prints. School of Art and Crafts. Barcelona, ES. / Mini-Print Show. Tucumán University Gallery. Tucumán, AR. [1997] 27th National Printmaking Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. / Drawing. Goethe Institute.  Lima, PE. [1996] National Drawing Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. 26th National Printmaking Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. [1995] 25th National Printmaking Hall. ICPNA Gallery. Lima, PE. 

COLLABORATION PROJECTS [2015] ‘Road Movie’. Camera and edition. Video work for ’Little Stories of Motherhood 3’. Exhibition by Natalia Iguiñiz. Luis Miró Quesada Garland Hall. Lima, PE. [2010] ’LIMAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima’. Collaboration with a video art piece ‘A Chinese Dream’ for the permanent and virtual exhibition. Project by Sandra Gamarra Heshiki. Lima, PE.

CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES [2015] Film Series at ‘Little Stories of Motherhood 3’. Exhibition by Natalia Iguiñiz. Luis Miró Quesada Garland Hall. Lima, PE.

COLLECTIONS Museo del Grabado ICPNA. Lima, PE. / Florean Museum. Baia Mare, RO.  / Pontificia Universidad Católica Art Collection. Lima, PE. / Other private collections.