Antonio de Santos

Antonio de Santos is an underground poet and experimental Chilean filmmaker graduated in Visual Arts from the Major University of Chile. Also known as performance player, writer and director of theater plays.
Biography
Antonio de Santos was born in Santiago de Chile. When he was 11 years old his father committed suicide on Carlos Gardel's grave, an event that changed his life permanently. At age 17, after finishing school at the Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera, he decided to leave his parental home to live on the streets and in abandoned houses.
Despite this new way of life, Antonio de Santos continued studying on his own and reading. He went almost every day to the National Library of Chile where he read novels and poetry and started writing poetry himself, influenced by the damned poets like Trakl, Novalis and Rimbaud. He pursued the experimental arts, mainly through the reconstruction of a poetic language through cinema, theater, plastic and literature.
He published his first book at age 17 and has published sixteen books since then, most of them art objects and fabricated by himself.
In the year 1999, De Santos published his first novel, When I wake up with a slut I put on Brahms, which had a significant review from the literary critic Patricia Espinosa.
He started his career as a director with Rachmaninoff in the year 2007. He did it mainly to prove everyone (to all those who said "it is not possible to do a movie without any funds") that he was capable of making films with almost any budget at all, "no reason is a good reason for not creating" he says.
Antonio de Santos maintains a close relation with various artistic circles, with which he collaborates in his artistic work. His spontaneously filmed work "Dressed Lunch" was made with the participation of the art and aesthetic critic Ricardo Loebell; and the musician Sebastián Jatz Rawicz. Also, his friendship with great Chilean poets such as José Miguel Vicuña and Hernán Miranda Casanova gave birth to two big poetic projects; firstly the creation of his poem "Waiting for death" dedicated to Vicuña Lagarrigue; and secondly the movie Scaffold in which Miranda Casanova and De Santos work together.
De Santos has directed 15 visual works and films. In the year 2012 he won with his movie Shaman, the award for Best Foreign Director at the 5th Istanbul Experimental Film Festival in Turkey and the award for Best Movie at the Latinamerican Antifilm Festival SANFRIK. In the year 2013, a retrospective of his works was presented at the Film Library of the Chilean Presidential Palace, La Moneda. He lives in Paris where he continues developing his poetic work and visual art.
Poetry work
*″Untitled″ (1997), poetry book published by Olimpo Editores at the , Santiago, Chile.
*″Punk″ (1999), art poetry book published by Verso Editores at the National Library of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
*"Raw meat with black blood sauce″ (2001), art poetry book published by Verso Editores at the National Library of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
*″That damned woman on her red high heel shoes″ (2001), art poetry book published by Verso Editores at the National Library of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
*″The darkboy″ (2001), art poetry book published by Verso Editores at the Bar Little Union, Santiago, Chile.
*″Bleeding out″ (2004), art poetry book published by Calavera Editores at the Providencia Literary Coffee, Santiago, Chile.
*″Five poetical pieces to drink with blood″ (2005), art poetry book published by Calavera Editores at the :es:Cine Arte Normandie, Santiago, Chile.
*″Under a gloomy elder″ (2010), poetry book published by BUNNY Editores, Madrid, España.
*″Poetry is dead″ (2012), poetry book published by BUNNY Editores, Madrid, España.
*″Hermit Mouths″ (2013), art poetry book published by BUNNY Editores, Madrid, España.
*″Shipwreck″ (2014), erotic poetry book published by BUNNY Editores at the UNDERSIDE Contemporary Art Space, Santiago, Chile.
*″Inner Skin″ (2015), art poetry book published by BUNNY Editores at the National Library of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Filmography
*Rachmaninoff (2007), presented at the White Auditorium at Catholic University, Santiago, Chile.
*Bitterness (2009), presented at the White Auditorium at Catholic University, Santiago, Chile.
*Shaman (2011), presented at :es:Festival Cine B at the Mori Space, Santiago, Chile.
*Scaffold (2012), screened at the Festival Cine B at the Lastarria 90 Center, Santiago, Chile.
*The Factory (2015), non-screened movie, Santiago, Chile.
Performances works
*″En Luto″ (2008), poetic performance at the White Auditorium at Catholic University, Santiago, Chile.
*″Kaspar Hauser″ (2010), performance at the EX-SALA Art Space, Santiago, Chile.
*″Le Beau Enfer″ (2016), screaming poetry music performance presented at the Plastic Room Art Space, Paris, France.
Theater plays
*″The Raven″ (2003), theatrical production at the Student Federation of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
*″Branches″ (2008), theatrical production at the EX-SALA Art Space, Santiago, Chile.
*″Dead man diary″ (2009), theatrical production at the EX-SALA Art Space, Santiago, Chile.
*″The last collector″ (2011), theatrical production at the UNDERSIDE Contemporary Art Space, Santiago, Chile.
*″Samuel is hungry″ (2013), theatrical production at the Contemporary Art Museum, Santiago, Chile.
Novel works
*″When I wake up with a slut I put on Brahms″ (2009), novel book published by Ebrius Editores at the , Santiago, Chile.
*″Fucking ready-made″ (2014), novel book published by BUNNY Editores at the , Santiago, Chile.
*″The Silent Machine″ (2015), art novel book published by BUNNY Editores at the D.U.D.A. Art Space, Santiago, Chile.
Visual works
*″CINEMOPOÉTICA″ (2001), unreleased video art.
*″Remains of a blame″ (2008), video art film presented at the White Auditorium at Catholic University, Santiago, Chile.
*″Greta″ (2009), screened at the Experimental Film Festival at the Film Library of the Government Palace of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
*″Copying Vera″ (2010), unreleased video art film.
*″Accessories″ (2011), unreleased video art film.
*″Manifesto of Experimental Cinema″ (2013), art object book published by BUNNY Editores, Madrid, España.
*″Seal7″ (2013), installation at the Major University, Santiago, Chile.
*″Dressed Lunch″ (2013), experimental video art film presented at the Film Library of the Government Palace of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
*″Dancer in the void″ (2014), installation at the Major University, Santiago, Chile.
*″INSECTA″ (2016), video art film presented at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin-Münster.

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