18 pictures and 18 stories
“18 fotografías y 18 historias” (18 pictures & 18 stories): second stop of “Performance in Resistance” by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina at Bulegoa z/b, Bilbao.
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18 photographs 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 6 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 fotografías y 18 historias 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 people have been invited to take one of the 18 photographs that make up Performance in Resistance and propose a story. The first stop 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. At the second stop at Bulegoa z/b, José Díaz Cuyás, Jaime Vallaure and Azucena Vieites will be telling 3 stories based on Peón al Rey (King’s Pawn Game), El discurso sigue… su curso (The discourse follows… its course) and Retratos callejeros (Street portraits). After Amsterdam and Bilbao, Performance in Resistance will travel to CAC Bretigny, Bretigny, Fundació Tàpies, Barcelona, BNV Producciones, Seville and the Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Universidade de São Paulo. Each of the 6 places will host 3 stories, making up a total of 18.
José Díaz Cuyás. Professor of Aesthetics at Universidad de La Laguna. Curator of Los Encuentros de Pamplona 1972: fin de fiesta del arte experimental, MNCARS, 2010; and Ir y venir de Valcárcel Medina, Fundació Tàpies, 2002, has been giving lectures and publishing articles in catalogues and specialised magazines since the 80s. Director of Acto editions and Acto: revista de pensamiento artístico contemporáneo ( http://www.revista-acto.net ).
Jaime Vallaure. Vallaure (Asturias, 1965) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work crosses performance, action, videoart and projects in creative experimentation. He teaches courses related to stage presence, space and the public (Master in Performing Arts, Universidad de Alcalá 2011/12). Since 1999, he has been part of the duo Los Torreznos, who make pieces for festivals and museums (Museo Serralves Oporto, Krannert Museum Chicago, Biennale di Venezia 2007, Hot Artic Festival Kirkenes Finland, Fundación Luis Xeoane A Coruña, Festival MAPA Pontos, Festival Escena Contemporánea Madrid…). He co-directs Entreascuas, which has published two works by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina: 2.000 d. de J.C. (2001) and Intonso (2011).
Azucena Vieites. Hernani, Gipuzkoa, 1967. Lives and works in Madrid. Artist. She has taken part in many projects and group exhibitions. Recent solo exhibitions include Fundido encadenado-Break You Nice, MUSAC, León, 2012; Coloring Book, Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz, Pamplona, 2011. She co-founded Erreakzioa-Reacción, a space between art and feminisms conceived in 1994 out of a will to influence the contexts she is received and produced by. She has been working since 2011 as a lecturer at the Facultad de Bellas Artes, Cuenca (UCLM).
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.
