Hommage an Aria Covamonas (1979–2025)

As part of an animated film night, Aria Covamonas’s “The Great History of Western Philosophy” will be screened on July 1 at 7 p.m. in the KHM Aula. The cutout animation film celebrated its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2025 and also screened that same year at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. Vanja Kaludjercic of the International Film Festival Rotterdam writes: “With its fantastical, painterly collage aesthetic, Dadaist sensibilities, and hilarious dubbed Chinese dialogue accompanied by entirely invented subtitles, this Mexican animated debut feature offers a sharp and irreverent critique of political and popular culture.”

Aria Covamonas (she/they) was, by their own account, born on the planet Earth in the solar system and was a self-taught filmmaker, photomontage artist, and animator. Aria Covamonas’s short films “Socrates’ Adventure in the Underground,” “Hideouser and Hideourser,” “Unidentified Item No. 984,” “Taxidermy for Beginners,” “Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals,” and “Tinnitus” have been screened internationally. “The Great History of Western Philosophy” is Aria Covamonas’ first and only feature-length film.