In Conversation with RESOLUCIÓN Curators Beatriz Navas Valdés and Natalia Marín Sancho
In RESOLUCIÓN, visitors explore the history of Spanish cinema through the lens of its most iconic actresses and the roles they portrayed. This immersive video installation – featuring excerpts from one hundred films spanning nine decades – is part of EUROPALIA ESPAÑA. Guest curators Beatriz Navas Valdés and Natalia Marín Sancho share their vision and curatorial approach.
Why did you choose the title ‘Resolución’, and what does it mean in the context of fashion and identity?
"The word captures a defining aspect of adulthood: the moment you make a decision and accept responsibility. It’s an intimate, existential turning point that recurs throughout our selection of film clips. For a long time, female characters in Spanish cinema were driven by the will of others, rarely making choices of their own. Our focus is not so much on fashion, but on gestures, body language and hesitation in those moments when they do choose. By repeating certain motifs, we reveal how female identity is shaped through cinematic representation."
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You describe the installation as an attempt to show the ‘infinite complexity of identity’. How did you translate that visually?
"Costumes, hairstyles and make-up reveal how fashion, especially under censorship and social pressure, becomes a visual code. During the Franco regime, women often appeared as if they were heading to church or a formal event – either to make a good impression or to remain invisible. Those who stood out were inevitably punished on screen. As the desire for change and the rise of feminism gained momentum, these visual codes began to shift. The installation reflects both the psychological transformation and its material expression in female bodies and style."
Is fashion still a powerful tool for self-expression today?
"Absolutely – perhaps even more so, in a more complex way than before. That’s why cinema is so important: it captures how fashion behaves over time, how clothing moves on the body, and how it interacts with narrative."
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What do you hope visitors take away from the installation?
"That cinema is sociology in motion. British film critic Raymond Durgnat once said that you could write the social history of a nation through its film stars – and we strongly believe that. Gestures, costumes and objects, and how they evolve, reveal much about a country’s shifting fears, desires and values."
RESOLUCIÓN: On lifetime decisions in Spanish cinema is on view from 12 July through 23 November 2025. More info and tickets available here
In collaboration with De Cinema, MoMu presents a film programme inspired by the exhibition RESOLUCIÓN. Seven carefully selected films each connect to a colour and tell a story about womanhood and the era in which they were made. Explore the full programme here