MECHELEN.- Best known for his 1979 cult film Arrebato, Iván Zulueta (1943–2009) was much more than a filmmaker. A visionary multidisciplinary artist, his oeuvre spans graphic design, experimental cinema, photography, television, and painting—each infused with a signature blend of surrealism, pop art, and a tactile sense of the ephemeral. Rooted in the countercultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s, his work merges avant-garde aesthetics with a deeply personal style, establishing Zulueta as one of the most innovative and influential figures in 20th-century Spanish art.

The exhibition title, Iván Zulueta: Through the Looking-Glass, refers to Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel in which Alice enters a fantastical world by climbing through a large mirror into a realm where things are reversed, including logic. The title evokes Zulueta’s fascination with the interplay between surface and depth, and his ability to transform the ordinary into the hallucinatory, challenging perception through aesthetic excess and ambiguity. It offers a journey through his prolific output, from iconic film posters for directors such as Pedro Almodóvar to materials drawn from his personal archive, preserved at the Filmoteca Española in Madrid since 2021.

His biography and work unfolded within the sociopolitical context of late Francoism and Spain’s democratic transition, anticipating the spirit of the countercultural movement La Movida and reflecting the era’s explosive creative freedom. This context is further explored through archival publications and a selection of striking photographs from the collection of Museo CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles, Madrid.

A new generation of Spanish artists engage with Zulueta’s legacy through new commissioned works that reimagine his themes, obsessions, and distinctive aesthetic universe. Beatriz Lobo transforms his life into an illustrated timeline, a playful and erratic visual biography. Esperanza Collado’s film installation with two Super 8 projectors explores the ephemeral, dissolving nature of cinema itself. Marta Azparren echoes Arrebato in an interactive mirror that evokes the film’s haunting themes of disappearance. Julio Linares paints a vibrant mural inspired by Villa Aloha, where abstraction and portraiture merge to evoke Zulueta’s most intimate universe.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of screenings will be presented at the Cinema Lumière in Mechelen featuring films by Zulueta, Pedro Almodóvar, and Ventura Pons. From Zulueta’s satire Un, dos, tres… el escondite inglés (1969) and cult classic Arrebato, to Pons’s documentary Ocaña, retrato intermitente (1978) and Almodóvar’s dark drama Matador (1986), the program highlights the radical creativity and bold themes shaping Spain’s cultural landscape during and after the Franco era.

Part of the 30th edition of EUROPALIA—which, forty years after Spain was first featured in 1985, celebrates the country’s rich cultural diversity—Iván Zulueta, Through the Looking-Glass marks the first major presentation of Zulueta’s work outside Spain, offering a rare opportunity to engage with the legacy of a true iconoclast.

Featuring works by Marta Azparren, Esperanza Collado, Julio Linares, Beatriz Lobo.

Curator: Andrea Cinel