The Institute for the History of Medicine and Science López Piñero (joint centre of the CSIC and the University of Valencia), based at the Palau de Cerveró, and the UVEG's Cinema Hall, present the film series "Cal•ligrafies de la malaltia" as part of the temporary exhibition with the same name organised by the UVEG's Office of the Vice-Principal for Culture and Equality and the López Piñero Institute. It is curated by Ricard Huerta, director of the Institute of Educational Creativity and Innovation. The cycle will take place during the months of October and November, beginning on Thursday 4 October with a screening of the short documentary "Ressonàncies magnétiques" (Isaki Lacuesta, Spain, 2003), and other artistic audiovisual documents about other calligraphies. The next film, "En la ciudad sin límites" (Antonio Hernandez, Spain and Argentina, 2002), will be shown two weeks later, on Thursday, 18 October. The third film, "The Pillow Book" (Peter Greenaway, UK, France, Netherlands and Luxembourg, 1995) will be screened next Thursday 25 October. "Ying Xiong" (Hero) (Zhang Yimou, Hong Kong, China, 2002) will close the cycle on And Thursday, 8 November.

All the films will be shown in their original versions, with Spanish subtitles, at 6 pm in the conference room of the Palau de Cerveró. Each session will be presented by the Cinema Hall of the University and after the film there will be a discussion in which the audience will be able to participate. The cycle, like the exhibition, presents handwriting as an element of visual culture, rediscovering its richness and artistic value in a time in which it has been displaced by communication technologies. The cycle will also gaze upon Chinese calligraphy, which is in turn one of the spaces in the exhibition, thanks to the collaboration of the Confucius Institute at the UVEG.

The first session deals with other calligraphies, showing elements that "write" the story of diseases, such as MRIs or X-rays. The first film, "Ressonàncies magnétiques", is a scientific documentary about the research on the creation of aesthetic experiences in the brain using MRIs. Next will be the screening of Man Ray's films in which the audience will see what he himself called rayograms, i.e., photographic images obtained through exposure to direct light of translucent or opaque objects on a photosensitive surface. The session will close with some of the work of artist Hugh Turvey, who creates X-ray artistic compositions.

In the second session, "En la ciudad sin límites" is a film that takes us to a family drama about an ill father. His son Victor reunites with his family in Paris to look after him. One day, he catches his father throwing his medicines away and dressing in secret to try to escape from the clinic. Victor, touched by the loneliness of the elder, tries to earn his trust and eventually becomes his accomplice.

Next film, "The Pillow Book", presents writing on human skin as a sensory experience, highlighting through a visual metaphor the sensitive and tactile aspect of text, of great evocative value. Nagiko is the daughter of a Japanese calligrapher who, obsessed with books and calligraphy, uses her body as a surface for writing.

The last film, "Ying Xiong (Hero)", is a cavalry film in which Chinese calligraphy is very important. The story takes us back to the China of the third century BC. The country is divided into different kingdoms fighting each other for supremacy. The king Qin is obsessed with the idea of unifying China and becoming its first Emperor. A man comes in his palace claiming to have defeated his three deadliest enemies.