Los pasos dobles

The French writer and artist François Augiéras (1925-1971) loved adventure, grand gestures and mystification. He once made a series of enormous frescoes in a bunker in the desert of Mali, which he then allowed to be swallowed up by the advancing sand dunes. Later generations would have to try and find this grand masterpiece: ‘the Sistine Chapel of the desert’.
Miquel Barceló, one of today’s leading Spanish artists, is fascinated by the work and life story of Augiéras. He also often works in Mali, where he finds inspiration for his sculptures and paintings.
The Catalan director Isaki Lacuesta made a documentary about Barceló, The Clay Diaries, and simultaneously made the fiction film The Double Steps: a complex, enchanting mix of fantasy and reality in a plethora of narrative lines, inspired by Barceló (who also plays a role in the film), Augiéras, and the narrative tradition of the Mali Dogon people. Amateur actors play most roles in this film that won the Golden Shell in San Sebastián.