The primary function of the film equipment in her film sculptures is not just to produce pictures but is itself an integral part of the installation. Film projectors are positioned in the room as if in imaginary conversation; motors running at different speeds create different levels of sound and strips of celluloid fed over film spools fill the space. The photo image itself, along with the traces of wear on the surface of the celluloid, or individual text fragments that the viewer involuntarily translates into images of their own are projected. In her work,Stating the real Sublime(2009), Barba has cleverly designed the suspension of a 16mm projector from the ceiling by a threaded film strip so that the projector and the projected image are constantly swinging and seem to be leading a life of their own.

The storylines in the films that Rosa Barba produces develop at the point where documentation meets fiction.The Hidden Conference:about the discontinuous history of things we see and don’t see(2010) shows pictures of a museum’s storage room in which Barba, using a hand-held camera, briefly reveals hidden works, found alliances, and disparate surroundings. Pendulating between the almost magical appearance and disappearance of images, the works become the protagonists in a narrative oscillating between dream and reality.

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