Highlights
Soft worlds, sharp edges
Exhibition, London Design FestivalSeptember 17–19, The Lavery as part of A Softer World, curated by Alex Tieghi-Walker for Brompton Design District at London Design Festival.
PRESS ︎ Financial Times, dezeen
Curated by Studio Charlotte Taylor with over 30 female designers, Soft Worlds, Sharp Edges transforms domestic space from passive backdrop into a site of agency and subversion. For the exhibition, personally, I activated a five-act filmic cycle, through a script and a series of films that unfolded parallel to the room’s shifts in light and arrangement. Anchor-objects jumped from the screen into the space blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
Charlotte’s and my creative language, design and film, performed as both stage and actor— re-scripting and choreographing desire and control. Yu Su made killer music for my videos to help shape a new narrative around the femme fatale trope.
Gallen’s flash talk at Decididas Summit in Mexico City, 2025.
El Diablo es una mujer
by Elena Gallen (Book)Title: El Diablo es una mujer
Year: 2021
Illustrator: Sara Herranz
Publisher: Lunwerg Editores, Grupo Planeta
Buy online: ︎
Partly film theory, partly cultural analysis essay and memoir, El Diablo es una Mujer restores the cinematic myth of the femme fatale reexamining historical figures like Lilith or Mata-Hari, and films spanning from Hollywood pre-codes to 90s neonoirs, french horrortica to rape-and-revenge.
The book rethinks established paradigms about ‘bad women’ on and off screen, prompting discussions around historical narratives and the impact of gender roles in individuals, as well as critically explores a range of profoundly hot topics that include cancellation culture and the biased representation of sapphic characters and storylines in film and literature.
From blockbusters to European arthouse, films like Basic Instinct, Promising Your Woman or Under the Skin are reinterpreted as portrays of feminine power and sexuality but also as a product of masculine fantasies and frustrations that rather feed on their fears and insecurities.
Les Malignes
Film in developmentA mediterranean folk horror drama, set in rural Europe.
Screenplay by
Elena Gallen
Festival and film lab Selections
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Cinema Pendent de L'Alternativa, Barcelona Independent Film Festival
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Terror Molins Horror Film Festival (winner)
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CIMA Pitch 2025
Pitch deck and full script upon request.
Poems I will never release
La Casa EncendidaLa Casa Encendida invited me to offer a tour of the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to Italian artist Chiara Fumai (Rome, 1978 – Bari, 2017) whose occult and satirical body of work resonates and dialogues with my own practice. An exhibition aimed to delve into the body of work of an artist who developed the languages of performance and feminist aesthetics of the 21st century.
︎ Read more
Genre: short experimental film
Running time: 7 min
Shot in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, DMZ, Mureung valley
Winner of 3위작 prize at the Short Film Competition 2025 of the Korean Cultural Center
Gear: I shot this with a Blackmagic Pro 6K with my dad's vintage Canon 28mm f2.8 and edited and colorgraded in Davinci Resolve
The knives of hell to lotus flowers
Experimental shortfilmInspired by a templestay at Samhwa-sa, in the Mureung valley aka “Arcadia” for its influence on eastern ancient poets and scholars, the film unfolds as a cinematic-vow—challenging us to embrace rituals of presence. Opening with a excerpt from the Buddha’s Fire Sermon, highlighting our enslavement to the senses—yet reframing image and sound as tools for contemplation— it guides us through the visual richness of South Korea: from Seoul to Busan, Daegu, DMZ, and the Taebaek mountain range by the Sea of Japan.
The knives of hell to lotus flowers encapsulates a duality between daily sufferings represented by the knives, contrasted with the potentiality of rebirth symbolised by the lotus flowers, known for their ability to grow in the mud after extended periods of dormancy.
About
Spanish writer, filmmaker and visual artist, Gallen majored in Media Studies to then attend film school at NYFA Los Angeles. Her work has been shown at Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair, the European Culture Congress, and Center for Creative Communications in Japan. She has lectured at La Casa Encendida or Fundación Mapfre in Madrid, and more recently, at Decididas summit in Mexico City, alongside voices like playwright Eve Ensler (V), yoga instructor Adriene Mishler and producer Adrienne Becker.
Her debut book El Diablo es una mujer (2021), published by Grupo Planeta, blends film theory and memoir to reclaim the femme fatale myth, and is set for screen adaptation. Gallén’s film scripts—spanning from period folk horror to historical biopic—have earned recognition from L’Alternativa Barcelona Independent Film Festival, CIMA Pitch, Terror Molins Horror Film Festival, or The Black List, where her spec GARBO scored an 8. Every other moon, she writes essay, poetry, contributing articles and edits independent artists’ books, now under The Arch.
Hailed in her early 20s as one of Spain’s high-profile creatives, starting her own fashion–art label in 2007, which she later balanced with comissions as an artist and creative director, Gallen debuted internationally in 2011 with her solo artshow Kyrie Eleison in Aix-en-Provence. Later cross-media works were shown at Longing for Tesla in BWA Wrocław Gallery as part of the European Culture Congress or Contemporary Art Museum of Castille & Leon (MUSAC). She was a judge to ADG Laus Awards and a professor at Istituto Europeo di Design (IED). She then entered cinema as production designer for award-winning Disco Inferno and Goya-nominated Oscuro y Lucientes (Tourmalet Films, RTVE, France Télévisions), both celebrated for their strong aesthetics, before moving into writing and filmmaking.
Gallen’s practice examines narratives through screenwriting, design, film, installation and other media. With a distinctive visual language, symbolism and conceptual rigor, she transcends storytelling, conjuring history, personal and cultural memory and engages in dialogues on representation within arts. Rooted in a spectrum of disciplinary artistic fields, her corpus of work has sustained a commitment to contribute to a thought-provoking creative landscape.
Exhibitions
2025
Soft Worlds, Sharp Edges
London Design Week
The Lavery
London, UK
2014
Atelier Des Jeunes,
La Fabrica
Madrid, Spain
Atelier Des Jeunes,
La Fresh Gallery
Madrid, Spain
Longing for Tesla,
Design BWA gallery
European Culture Congress
Wrocław, Poland
2013
OffGallery,
JustMad Art Fair
Madrid, Spain
2011
Kyrie Eleison (solo)
KULTE
Aix en Provence, France
2010
Estoril FashionArt Festival
Estoril, Portugal
2009
Sacred Geometry,
Urban Outfitters
Manchester, UK
2007
In An Absolute World,
Sala Offlimits
Madrid, Spain
Workshops
2012
LIBROS MUTANTES:
Perspectivas Mutantes
La Casa Encendida
Madrid, Spain
Talks
2025
DECIDIDAS SUMMIT
Flash talk about my book El Diablo es una mujer as part of a summit promoted by Olga Segura, Barbara Arrendondo and Karina Ojeda.
Four Seasons, Mexico City
2022
POEMS I WILL NEVER RELEASE
Guided visit to Chiara Fumai retrospective exhibition
La Casa Encendida, Madrid
2018
MARY SHELLEY screening
by Sunset Cinema
CentroCentro, Madrid
2017
VEIN GIRLS Round table
IED Visual Communication, Madrid
ArtBook Fairs
Arts Libris, CCCB and ARCOmadrid
Barcelona and Madrid
:ndex Guadalajara Art Book Fair,
Guadalajara, Mexico
Printed Matters,
NY Art Book Fair, MOMA PS1
New York City, USA
Sprint (Salone di editoria
indipendente e d'artista)
Milano, Italy
The Center for Creative
Communications (CCC)
Shizuoka, Japan
Libros Mutantes,
La Casa Encendida
Madrid, Spain
Film curation
2025Charlotte Taylor’s
Home from Home
Noura Residency,
3 days of design,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Book curation
2025
INCADAQUES Photo Festival
Cadaqués, Costa Brava
Catalunya
(with The Arch)
Art Curation
Girls! Why did you decide
to start a band?
MUSAC, Museum of Contemporary
Art of Castille & Leon, Spain
2016
Ruben Brulat, Sharing Paths
Espacio Valverde, Madrid, Spain
2013
Co-editor, FUEGO
Barcelona, Spain
2009-2012
Press
Archive of early works
The aesthetics of Disco Inferno evoked silent cinema and were reminiscent of Georges Franju’s Les yeux sans visage.
DISCO INFERNO
Film production designAs production designer of award-winning horror film Disco Inferno (2015) starring actresses Aitana Sanchez-Gijón and Ana Rujas, I was impelled to design a personal fantasy. Hand in hand with the directress, I was in charge of the overall aesthetic as well as on set art direction and set design with mininum crew. I followed a monochromatic palette evoking silent cinema and reminiscent of Georges Franju, conceived opulent, baroque-set design rich in occult symbolism, and drew inspiration from Illuminati balls for both wardrobe and props. Every detail was personally curated in a long pre-production with tight budget, which was a challenge. Written by Oscar-winning Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo & Alice Waddington, the shortfilm toured over 60 international film festivals and was praised for its aesthetic.
︎ View trailer or watch on demand
Styled and designed by Gallen with a refined minimalist aesthetic suiting the contemplative tone of the film.
Oscuro y Lucientes
Film Production DesignSpanish-French creative documentary Oscuro y Lucientes (2018) aka Goya’s Skull, is a detectivesque film with a dose of dark humor that follows whatever happened to painting legend, Francisco de Goya, after his death in the French exile. Produced by Tourmalet Films, Marmitafilms in coproduction with RTVE and France Télévisions. With the help of ICAA Ministerio de Cultura y Comunidad de Madrid.
I worked with a minimalist refined approach— elegant and subtly expressive in keeping with the documentary’s contemplative and poised tone. I styled everything with a muted palette and a pop of red, and recreated a crypt in Bordeaux Cemetery after it was vandalized and Goya’s skull stolen, capturing both historical detail and the poignancy of its desecration. I micromanaged indoor and outdoor scenes as we explored hidden corners of cultural heritage—from museum basements to the Salamanca’s library lined with philosophy manuscripts and celestial globes, ancient halls of castles like Castillo de Pedraza or inhabited spaces like nº 57 del Cours de l’Intendance (where Goya died) now L’Instituto Cervantes de Bordeaux.
︎ Watch on filmin.es
An exhibition co-curated and designed by Gallen, running from February to June 2016
MUSAC, Contemporary Art Museum of Castille and Leon
Girls! Why did you decide to start a band? was a multi-channel audiovisual installation designed by Elena Gallen and co-curated by her and the editorial team of Lados Magazine, whom initiated the project earlier that year to then then partner up with Gallen to work on a long-term exhibition within MUSAC’s Espacio Vitrinas.
Intertwining interview segments by music artists Fee Reega, Lorena Álvarez, Ainara LeGardón, LCC and PL Girls and graphism, the collective puzzle of women’s voices questioned gender equality within cultural industries. The show was held along parallel activities and a publication.
A narrative constructed by the randomness of encounters, places and bodies, meeting with utopia and hope in suspended moments.
︎ New York Times Style Magazine
︎ More about ‘Sharing Paths’ exhibition
︎ New York Times Style Magazine
︎ More about ‘Sharing Paths’ exhibition
Sharing Paths
Ruben BrulatInspired by Brulat’s research on the fragility of the human body in contrast with the primal forces of nature, I accepted his proposal of editing and designing his photobook for his famous series ‘Paths’ which documents the french artists’ journey from Paris to Paris, across Europe and Asia by land only, through Iraq, Iran, on-to Afghanistan, Tibet until Indonesia, Japan and Mongolia. I also curated his photographic exhibition and book launch for this project at Galeria Espacio Valverde in Madrid, soon after the book was presented at Urban Spree Galerie in Berlin. Exhibition was supported by Societé Perrier.
Major arcana tarot deck
concept and design
as part of the branding for
La Terraza Magnética.
︎ lacasaencendida.com
concept and design
as part of the branding for
La Terraza Magnética.
︎ lacasaencendida.com
La Casa Encendida
La Terraza MagnéticaMadrid’s avantgarde cultural center La Casa Encendida commissioned me for the branding of their film screening and concerts programme—where cutting-edge combo of experimentation, electronics, atmosphere and ritual radiated in confluence with cult movies about witchcraft, sects and aspirations of access to other realms. As part of the signage we designed a major arcana tarot deck, after obessing with the psychoanalytic study of tarot for over a year. In collaboration with Silvia Bianchi in 2016.
Gallen designed unique silk
scarves Woman in purple
and Glory Hole in 2008.
scarves Woman in purple
and Glory Hole in 2008.
Gallen x Cassiopeia
Barcelona-London-MoscowPursuing a multidimensional fusion between creative techniques and endevoirs after years working in high street fashion, Russian London-based print designer Irina Kikina invited me to design two unique piece silk scarves for her project Cassiopeia, inspired by Eastern European culture, arts, and produced ethically in London, Riga and Manchester.