17 Pasos

17 Pasos is a short film that documents the relationship between working and personal life for the artist, her partner and a number of participants — family members, acquaintances and people she had not known before the project — during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Confined at home, the artist records what she sees in her domestic surroundings, while turning the distance between the living room and the kitchen — 17 steps — into a path she walks for an hour each day, using the time to reflect on her own life and on the lives of others, known or unknown, whose testimonies she has been able to gather.

Each participant contributes their personal and professional experience of lockdown. Some found new ways of continuing their work, some had to reinvent themselves, while others put their activity on hold in the hope of better times.

Throughout the film, the artist’s voice-over weaves together people and themes in a reflection on what has been lived through: the past that brought us here, a dystopian present and an uncertain future, grounded in a new awareness of the social dimension as an inherent and indivisible part of the self.

Music and poetic images provide an intimate counterpoint to an outside world whose dystopia has seeped into homes and lives, while love for the planet and solidarity express the private hope of an artist who still believes in humanity.