Rara Avis. AV installation

An audiovisual installation by Aníbal Santaella, dedicated to Graciela Iturbide, Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts 2025. The piece was exhibited during the Premios Princesa de Asturias week organized by the Fundación Princesa de Asturias, and could be visited at the Fábrica de Armas de La Vega in Oviedo between October 16 and 24, 2025. Installed inside one of the factory’s industrial halls —transformed for the occasion into a 100-person cinema— the work was projected in a continuous loop, immersing viewers in its 3 minutes and 33 seconds of visual and sonic meditation. Both the images and the music were crafted with artificial intelligence, using custom language-based models inspired by Iturbide’s poetic universe and the alchemical world of analog photographic development.

Ultra-panoramic projection screen measuring 8 meters wide by 3 meters high, installed within a 7-meter-long museographic space covering 126 square meters.

Sound and visuals entirely crafted with AI, through a custom model trained on original digital artwork.

Concept

Graciela Iturbide’s photography is a form of revelation. Her lucid and poetic gaze portrayed birds as mediators between heaven and earth, between life and death. RARA AVIS reinterprets this vision and translates it into cinematic language, recreating the tone, texture, and symbolic depth of her images.

Script

In this piece, we follow the flight of two starlings who, under the influence of a powerful Mexican woman, cross a symbolic storm that leads them to their death in the desert. In parallel, we accompany Graciela in her studio and in her relentless search for the photographic instant within that same desert. Her gaze intertwines with that of a peregrine falcon, culminating in a final image whose development merges both narratives.

Look

The piece takes shape as a mid-20th-century classic film, unfolding a restrained black-and-white visual language of high contrast that evokes the artist’s photographic universe. Its grainy texture recalls analog photography —particularly the silver-gelatin process— thus reinforcing the dialogue with Graciela’s imagery.

Tone

Rara Avis is an interpretation of Graciela Iturbide’s universe that hovers over the very idea of photography in a tone of meta-language. It explores her vision of birds as mediators between sky and earth, life and death, and unfolds references to desert landscapes, shadow play, strong Mexican women, and numerous nods to her photographs through a wide range of compositions.

The birds

Peregrine Falcon Present in the skies and deserts of Mexico, the peregrine falcon embodies a sharp, patient, and protective gaze. It is the bird of the observer — watching from above and descending with precision upon the photographic instant. Red-winged Blackbirds Native to Mexico, these birds are the ones the Mexican woman places over her eyes to trigger the action. They serve as a metaphor for the soul that guides the body. Starlings European birds accustomed to flying in flocks that form hypnotic choreographies in the sky. In the piece, they represent the body crossing the storm — the act of total transformation, death, and rebirth.

Context

The Awards

Fundación Princesa de Asturias (FPA) is a cultural institution promoted by the Spanish Royal Family. Each year, it grants Premios Princesa de Asturias, which recognize excellence in the arts, sciences, humanities, and international cooperation. Considered the most prestigious cultural honors in Spain, the awards have distinguished some of the world’s most influential figures, including Meryl Streep, Leonard Cohen, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, Francis Ford Coppola, Susan Sontag, Umberto Eco, Pedro Almodóvar, Ennio Morricone and Marina Abramović.

2025

The 2025 Premios Princesa de Asturias honor Byung-Chul Han (Communication and Humanities), Eduardo Mendoza (Literature), Douglas Massey (Social Sciences), Graciela Iturbide (Arts), Serena Williams (Sports), the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico (Concord), Mary-Claire King (Scientific and Technical Research), and Mario Draghi (International Cooperation).

Framework

Rara Avis was part of the “Semana de los premios” program, dedicated to showcasing the work of the award recipients and held at the Fábrica de Armas de La Vega (Oviedo). Within this framework, it formed part of the tribute to Graciela Iturbide, whose exhibition “Graciela Iturbide. Spain and Mexico” was presented in the adjoining hall — a major retrospective that brought together a wide selection of her photographs, preceded by an installation of maize fields evoking the symbolic roots of her visual universe.

Processes

Installation

The Rara Avis installation is conceived within one of the industrial halls of La Vega Arms Factory, adapted into a cinematic space. The projection screen, custom-built for the project, measures 8 meters wide by 3 meters high. The exhibition area covers approximately 127 square meters, with dimensions of 14 meters in length, 9 meters in width, and 7 meters in height at its tallest point, and can accommodate up to 100 visitors simultaneously. Its preparation required a coordinated technical effort with cranes, focused on soundproofing and light isolation using insulating textile curtains that enclosed the entire perimeter of the space.

Tech

The projection system operates in 4K, using a high-brightness projector that plays the 3-minute-33-second piece in a continuous loop. The soundtrack, composed specifically for the installation, is mixed in a 4.2 spatial format, including rear channels for an immersive sound experience. Audiovisual management is centralized in a real-time control rack, ensuring precise synchronization, chromatic stability, and seamless system performance throughout the projection.

Credits

RARA AVIS. Audiovisual Installation

Organization. Fundación Princesa de Asturias // Direction & music. Aníbal Santaella // Audiovisual Production. Fundación Princesa de Asturias & Existe Artlab // Graphic design. Estudio Creativo We, Eva Sandoval & Alfredo Casasola // Production. Mono Gnomo // CGIGraphic Production. Astur Copia

Exhibition. Graciela Iturbide: España y Mexico

Organization. Fundación Princesa de Asturias & Graciela Iturbide // Curator. Beatriz Mackenzie // Exhibition Design. Ángela Juarranz Studio //Graphic design. Estudio Creativo We, Eva Sandoval & Alfredo Casasola // Maize Installation. Materia Botánica // Production. Mono Gnomo // Graphic production. Astur Copia // Photography. Erik Veiga