On Friday 20 April at Bulegoa z/b in Bilbao, If Can’t Dance and Bulegoa present 18 pictures and 18 stories, with three invited storytellers that respond to a new work by Spanish artist Isidoro Valcàrcel Medina. Speakers Azucena Vieites, José Díaz Cuyás and Jaime Vallaure will each tell a story on the basis of one photograph from Valcàrcel Medina’s new work Performance in Resistance, which will be on view at Bulegoa z/b. During the presentations, Valcàrcel Medina is available on the phone for any question the audience or speaker might want to ask him.

This is the second installment of 18 pictures and 18 stories, which started off at Het Veem Theater in Amsterdam with the first three stories on 26 February. Following Bulegoa z/b, 18 pictures and 18 stories will travel to different institutions in- and outside Europe, engaging new speakers in every installment, and continuing with CAC Brétigny (France) in October 2012 and traveling onward to a.o. the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP) in Fall 2012.

Exactly one year ago, If I Can’t Dance invited Valcàrcel Medina and Bilbao-based collaborative initiative Bulegoa z/b to partake in a comprehensive research project as part of the programme Performance in Residence. With this programme, If I Can’t Dance considers past performances in the light of current artistic practice. Valcàrcel Medina immediately responded to our invitation with Performance in Resistance, a series of 18 photographs that dislodge his past performances from their historical frame. In the photographs, he presents 18 different actions he performed in different cities between 1965 and 1993. Many of these actions were never documented, and thus the new work addresses the frictions between the live moment and the document, past and present, fact and fiction.

After the kick-off in Amsterdam the project travels to institutions abroad, and only comes to a close when 18 stories have been told. The stories will be collected in a publication that offers host to all the voices, interpretations, facts and fictions that are told during the tour of 18 pictures and 18 stories.

18 pictures and 18 stories
Concept: Bulegoa z/b and Isidoro Valàrcel Medina
Commissioner: If I Can’t Dance
Storytellers Bilbao: Azucena Vieites, José Díaz Cuyás, and Jaime Vallaure
Storytellers Amsterdam: Moosje Goosen, Esteban Pujals Gesalí, and Emilio Moreno
Language: English spoken

Performance in Resistance
Isidoro Valcàrcel Medina
Photography: Rocío Areán Gutiérrez, student of Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London

The start of the research project by Bulegoa z/b and Isidoro Valcàrcel Medina for Performance in Residence took place in Het Veem Theater in February 2011. Click here for information and pictures of the evening.

Biographies
Isidoro Valcàrcel Medina (Murcia, 1937) is an important representative of conceptual art in Spain, hardly known outside of Spanish speaking countries. His body of work includes performances, sound pieces, architectural projects, installations and books. From his early practice up to the present day, he has asserted a critical attitude towards both art institutions and the art market, developing instead situations and scenarios that allow him to engage in a more directly affective relation with his audience.

Bulegoa z/b is a collaborative initiative based in Bilbao, Spain. Its members, Beatriz Cavia, Miren Jaio, Isabel de Naveràn and Leire Vergara come from backgrounds in both visual arts and social theory. Their initiative, an ‘office for art and knowledge’ is created around a common interest in processes of historization, cultural translation, performativity, the body, postcolonialism, social theory, archival strategies and education. Their varied professional backgrounds allow for a myriad of methodologies within their many projects. Bulegoa z/b has conceptualized the curatorial format for 18 pictures and 18 stories.

José Díaz Cuyás is Professor of Aesthetics at Universidad de La Laguna. He was curator of Los Encuentros de Pamplona 1972: fin de fiesta del arte experimental, MNCARS, 2010; and Ir y venir de Valcàrcel Medina, Fundació Tàpies, 2002. He has been giving lectures and publishing articles in catalogues and specialised magazines since the ’80s, and is director of Acto editions and Acto: revista de pensamiento artìstico contemporéneo (revista-acto.net). For 18 pictures and 18 stories, José Díaz Cuyás will speak about Knight Pawn, Murcia, 1965.

Jaime Vallaure is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work crosses performance, action, video art and projects in creative experimentation. He teaches courses related to stage presence, space and the public at the Master in Performing Arts in the Universidad de Alcalá. Since 1999 he has been part of the duo Los Torreznos, who make pieces for festivals and museums, such as the Museo Serralves Oporto, Krannert Museum Chicago, Biennale di Venezia 2007, Hot Artic Festival Kirkenes Finland, Fundación Luis Xeoane A Coruña, Festival MAPA Pontos, and Festival Escena Contemporánea Madrid. He co-directs Entreascuas, which has published two books by Isidoro Valc&aagrave;rcel Medina: 2.000 d. de J.C. (2001) and Intonso (2011). For 18 pictures and 18 stories, Jaime Vallaure will speak about ‘Discourse Continues… Its Course’, Granada, 1993.

Azucena Vieites is an artist who lives and works in Madrid. She has taken part in many projects and group exhibitions. Recent solo exhibitions include Fundido encadenado-Break You Nice, MUSAC, León, 2012; and 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). For 18 pictures and 18 stories, Azucena Vieites will speak about ‘Street Portraits’, Sala Vinçon, Barcelona, 1975.