KUMU documentary

As part of the TAB 2026 satellite programme, the Kumu Documentary screenings explore the hidden costs behind architecture, materials, heritage and construction.

The program presents two documentary films: El Ariston by Gerardo Panera (Argentina) and veins by Laurian Ghinitoiu and Arata Mori (Romania, Japan). The two independent films together unfold a trajectory, firstly tracing the extraction of 30.000 tons of marble in Portugal and its route to become a translucent façade of the Perelman Performing Arts Centre at the World Trade Center in New York, and secondly pickick up the history of Marcel Breuer’s now-abandoned El Ariston in Mar del Plata, situating its story within the broader transformation of the surrounding neighbourhood form a destination for the aristocracy to one of mass tourism.

Responding to TAB 2026, the films examine questions of labour, material origins, global supply chains, environmental impact and the preservation or neglect of architectural heritage and extend the question “How much?” across time, geography, and responsibility.

El Ariston (doc, 2024, Argentina, 67’) follows the story of Parador Ariston in Mar del Plata, designed by Bauhaus figure Marcel Breuer. Once a modernist symbol of a growing resort city, the building has gradually fallen into neglect, raising questions about the fragile value of architectural heritage and the price of preserving or abandoning it.

veins (doc, 2024, Romania/Japan, 48’) traces the journey of 30,000 tons of Portuguese marble from a quarry through European factories to the façade of the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center in New York. Through this material journey, the film reveals the human, industrial, environmental, and political processes behind monumental architecture.