Boxing Cravan: cinematógrafo, estranhamento, subitaneidade

Abstract

I propose in this essay a reading of some aspects of the cinematography that characterizes the documentary Cravan vs Cravan (2002) by Catalan filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta. The film focuses on the figure of Arthur Cravan (1887-1918), who, during the inflamed times of the early twentieth century, specifically in 1916, fought with Jack Johnson in Barcelona. Cravan, the poet boxer, was imbued with a self-destructive drive: paroxysmal denial – from the perspective of a sort of agonizing performance –, of a posthumous Art buried in Museums. In this sense, it is a symbolic gesture of the creative act during the decades of the historical avant-gardes. If the works of art are considered defunct objects, the artist faces up to the world with his fists, betting the ephemeral burning of the living body in the combustion of a unique combat. I propose the articulation, in order to read this documentary