Bortolami is pleased to present La Ricarda, a film directed and edited by Michel François. In July 2006 Michel François invited thirteen artists to the Casa Gomis, a beautiful home situated on the La Ricarda estate in the northeast of Spain. This example of European Modernist design, built by the architect Antoni Bonet in the 1950s, is located in a pine forest between the airport and the suburbs of Barcelona. Threatened by the encroachment of a busy airport, modern suburban sprawl, and nature’s elements, Casa Gomis appears as almost an anachronism, seemingly losing ground to its surroundings.

For this film project, François asked each artist to produce his/her own video sequence with the only guidelines or unifying commonality being the location and the time in which they had come together. The challenge was to see what would happen when a variety of creative individuals including visual artists, choreographers, filmmakers, scenographers and stage designers, contribute to a communal film that has no script. Each artist filmed in and around the house, coming in scarce contact with any of the other artists. No one could anticipate what would result when the interpretations from the various personalities were put together in one film. Once François edited, what appeared was a film that brought new life to the Casa Gomis. It became the star character of the film where one senses the personality and all of the possibilities for this unique house – one that appears to have a life of its very own. Through these various artists’ eyes, emerges an unusual and unexpected film that is segmented in its approach but ultimately cohesive in its entirety.