“18 pictures and 18 stories”: seventh stage of “Performance in Resistance”* by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina at MAC-USP – Museum of Contemporary Art- University of Sâo Paulo, Sâo Paulo

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18 pictures and 18 stories is a project of Bulegoa z/b, realized in collaboration with If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution of Amsterdam, that presents and accompanies Performance in Resistance by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina through 18 stories and on a journey to 7 cities.

In Autumn 2010, If I Can’t Dance invited Valcárcel Medina and Bulegoa z/b to take part in Performance in Residence, a program that studies and researches performances from the past from the perspective of current artistic practice, and that includes the participation of Flávio de Carvalho e Inti Guerrero, Guy de Cointet and Marie de Brugerolle, Matt Mullican and Vanessa Desclaux. Valcárcel Medina responded to the invitation with Performance in Resistance, 18 photographs mounted on passe-partout that show as many actions carried out by the artist in different cities between 1965 and 1993. The resulting set of images blurs the limits between the lived moment and the document, between what happened and fiction. Performance in Resistance also shows the guiding principle of Valcárcel Medina’s practice, his refusal to submit to the conventions of any institution or discipline, including the discipline of history. Such performative resistance arises from the artist’s conviction that his only material is his historical time, and that the imagination “hides a wealth which drives the world”.

18 pictures and 18 stories conceives investigation as an imaginative practice which can transform and reactivate its objects of study. The work takes the form of an itinerant framework which produces narratives. 18 different people have been invited to take one of the 18 photographs that make up Performance in Resistance and propose a story.

The first stage of this specifically-conceived work by Valcárcel Medina was the Hetveem Theater, Amsterdam, in February 2012. There, three narrators, Moosje Goosen, Emilio Moreno and Esteban Pujals Gesalí, told 3 stories based on 3 of the set of photographs: Campaña 1969 (Madrid, Murcia, 1969) S/T. Herramientas de Precisión (Milano, 1987) and 136 manzanas de Asunción (Asunción, 1976).

At the second stage, on 20th April at Bulegoa z/b, José Díaz Cuyás, Jaime Vallaure and Azucena Vieites told 3 stories based on Peón al Rey (Murcia, 1965), Retratos callejeros (Barcelona, 1975), and El discurso sigue… su curso (Granada, 1993).

In its third stage, Performance in Resistance traveled to the Fundació Tàpies, Barcelona, on 6 June 2012. Nuria Enguita, Aimar Pérez and Manuel Martínez retold El cuadro (Madrid, 1969), La Visita (many cities, 1974) and El Sena por París (Paris, 1975), respectively.

In the fourth stage, at CAC Brétigny, on 27 October, Esther Ferrer talked about El Sena por París (Paris, 1975), Jon Mikel Euba about El hombre de la capa (New York, 1967), and Pierre Bal-Blanc about Maratón (Madrid, 1981).

At the fifth stage at BNV Producciones, Seville, on 6 November, Pedro G. Romero, Isaías Griñolo and Miren Jaio narrated Encuesta en la cola del besamanos del Cristo de Medinaceli (Madrid, 1978), El pintor en la calle (Madrid, 1978) and 12 ejercicios de medición sobre la ciudad de Córdoba (J) (Cordoba, 1974), respectively.

At the sixth stage at Playground Festival at STUK, Leuven on, 11 November, Koen Brams talked about Retratos callejeros (Barcelona, 1975), Dora García about Hombres anuncio (Madrid, 1976) and Myriam Van Imschoot about S/T (known as Paso de peatones) (many cities, 1971).

18 pictures and 18 stories and Performance in Resistance finalize their journey on 29 November at MAC – Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Sâo Paulo. Performance in Resistance will be shown with A Cidade e o Estrangeiro (The City and the Foreigner). The exhibition, curated by Cristina Freire, recovers documentary registers of the monographic exhibition of the same name by Valcárcel Medina at the MAC in 1976. In the seventh and last stage of 18 pictures and 18 stories Juan Domínguez, Carla Zaccagnini and Grupo GEACC – Grupo de Pesquisa em Arte Conceitual e Conceitualismos – CNPq will narrate S/T (known as Paso de peatones) (many cities, 1971), El diccionario de la gente (Sâo Paulo, 1976) and Etiquetas adhesivas (Buenos Aires, 1976).

Isidoro Valcárcel Medina will be available on the telephone to answer questions from the narrators or public.

The seventh and final stage will be accompanied with the following events:

November 29. 10:30h-16:00h.

Panel discussion: art + document = fiction?

With the participation of María Ivone Santos, Hélio Fervenza, Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Cristina Freire, Beatriz Cavia, Miren Jaio and Leire Vergara (Bulegoa z/b) and Frederique Bergholtz (If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want To Be Part of Your Revolution).

November 30. 10:00h-13:00h.

Workshop: 18 photographs and 18 stories.

An approach to the practice of Isidoro Valcárcel Medina through various sources. 

Registration: eventosmac@usp.br

Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de Sâo Paulo
MAC USP Cidade Universitária
Rua da Praça do Relógio, 160
www.mac.usp.br

*Photographs: Rocío Areán Gutiérrez, student at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.

Juan Domínguez. Performer, choreographer, stage director and programmer. Lives and works in Madrid and Berlin. Since 1987 he has worked as a performer and assistant with different companies and choreographers in Europe. Since 1992 he has worked on his own pieces. Titles since 2000: the taste is mine 2000. todos los buenos espías tienen mi edad [all good spies are my age] 2002. the application 2005. seven attempted escapes from silence (opera) 2005. shichimi togarashi 2006. todos los buenos artistas de mi edad están muertos [all the good artists of my age are dead] 2007. de la… a la…[from the… to the…] (research project) 2007/08. don’t even think about it 2008. blue 2009. clean room (scenic mini-series) 2010, Ya llegan los personajes (in collaboration with Los Torreznos) 2011. Artist in residence in PODEWIL, Berlin-Germany during the years 2004-2005. Between 2003 and 2012 he was the artistic director of the Festival In-Presentable (La Casa Encendida / Madrid). Since 2010 he has been co-designer of Living Room Festival (Madrid / Berlin). His work is based on questions concerning the theatrical medium. Working on the relationship between different codes, his works propose a dissolution between fiction and reality.

Grupo de Estudio Arte Conceptual y Conceptualismos en el Museo (GEACC). Made up of graduate and postgraduate students, oriented by curator and professor Cristina Freire. Linked to the CNPq (National Research Council), it was set up as a laboratory for investigation and learning applied to the study and development of a critical history of art. Projects by the group focus on artists, artworks and institutional histories, and attempt to articulate history, theory and curatorial practice through the University of Sâo Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art.

Carla Zaccagnini (Buenos Aires, 1973) is an artist, writer, and curator, who lives in São Paulo. Strategies for creating meaning through forms of displacement, deviation, approximation and reorganization are often found in her works. Among her most recent exhibitions are her participation in the 28 Bienal de São Paulo (2008) and the solo shows Bifurcações e encruzilhadas (Vermelho, São Paulo, 2008), no.it is opposition. (AGYU, Toronto, 2008), Imposible pero necesario (Joan Prats, Barcelona, 2010) and Plano de falla (Ignacio Liprandi, Buenos Aires, 2011).

18 pictures and 18 stories is co-produced by BNV Producciones, Seville; CAC Brétigny, Greater Paris; If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Amsterdam; the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP); Playground Festival in STUK/Museum M, Leuven; Tàpies Foundation, Barcelona; Tate Modern, London; and Het Veem Theater, Amsterdam.

The publication and the performances are realized with the support of Corpus: a network for performance practice financed by the European Union.