The polyhedral work of José Val del Omar (Granada, 1904 – Madrid, 1982) is linked to the medium of film, as much to the invention of devices, formats and patents as the production of visionary and experimental films representing the conception of total art he called PLAT (Picto-Luminc-Audio-Tactile).

Since the 1930s, Val del Omar had been endlessly acquiring and conserving devices he stored in different spaces up until 1974, when he created his own lab-workshop in the Ilustración neighbourhood in northern Madrid. It was there that he spent the final years of his life, focusing on producing a body of audiovisual variations, texts and collages, which were preserved in their original location before being transferred to the Museo Reina Sofía in 2010. The PLAT Laboratory (1975-1982), partially recreated, with original objects, in this room, condenses the film-maker’s final work: trials, tests and unfinished fragments which constitute a web of ideas and images which interrelate and are completed.  

To demonstrate the type of creations he developed in this period, a selection of Super-8 films he shot from 1974 onwards, found in the laboratory exactly as they are displayed here, are shown on the main screen.

Donation from 2011, updated in 2021, of the María José Val del Omar & Gonzalo Sáenz de Buruaga Archive, currently the Val del Omar Archive (President: Gonzalo Sáenz de Buruaga/Director: Piluca Baquero Val del Omar).