92 SESSION OF ILLEGAL_CINEMA

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Screening of a series of videos selected by Rocío Agudo followed by a discussion.

Session 92 of Illegal_Cinema is presented together with Offerings by Vinita Gatne in the framework of the Solokoetxe Summer Solstice, a joint celebration held in different spaces in the Bilbao neighbourhood of Solokoetxe that began in 2015.

17:30 – 22:00

THE ROOF THE ROOF THE ROOF IS ON FIRE

I found some VHS tapes and I don’t know what to think. I see them from time to time, but I never watch from start to finish. They are recordings of local festivities from about twenty years ago, I would say.

I don’t know how to approach this material, I don’t know if I want to dance. A very old feeling comes to me when I listen to Follow the leader, but I don’t want to talk about it.

I see the singer because someone recorded him, is that obeying? Am I giving orders from here?

I see a camera-singer-audience scheme, but I’m not sure about the order and hierarchies.

I am aware of the movements, of following and hesitating.

At some point all of this makes me feel uncomfortable. I stop watching.

Perhaps I can approach from a partial neutrality, starting with an external space, alien conditions, a sharing of something that is not mine. Picking up. Looking. I am compelled by some verses of the songs: Izquierda, derecha, left, right/Cuando te miro y no me miras/Bailando, bailando, amigos adiós, adiós.

Humour scares me, but I guess it shouldn’t: deep down I’m scared that I’m laughing at these people, at a high note, at a pick up line that makes me laugh.

There is familiarity, and inside there is the fear, and in that fear I amuse myself a little and say well, with all this I’m moving a little at least, even if it’s just a little shift that might take me somewhere else, but even if it doesn’t, it’s okay.

Rocío Agudo (Zaragoza, 1996). Master in Contemporary Technological and Performative Art (UPV/EHU, 2020) and Degree in Fine Arts (University of Zaragoza, 2018). She has also been trained at JAI, Institute of artistic practices (Tabakalera, 2020). She has carried out residencies in Bilbaoarte (Bilbao, 2021), CentroCentro (Madrid, 2020), the Center for Basque Studies (USA, 2019) and Etopía (Zaragoza, 2019). Her work has been exhibited individually at the Montehermoso Cultural Centre (Gasteiz) and collectively at Artium (Gasteiz) and at the IAACC Pablo Serrano (Zaragoza), among others.