More information: CAC Brétigny
On 27 October 2012, the fourth installment of 18 pictures and 18 stories will take place at CAC Brétigny, Brétigny sur Orge. Speakers Esther Ferrer, Jon Mikel Euba, and Pierre Bal-Blanc will each tell a story on the basis of one photograph from Valcárcel Medina’s new work Performance in Resistance, which will be on view at CAC Brétigny between 22 and 28 October, 2012. During the presentations, Valcárcel Medina is available on the phone for any question the audience or speaker might want to ask him.
After this fourth event, 18 pictures and 18 stories will engage new speakers in the new installments in the fall, until all 18 stories are told. Upcoming presentations take place at BNV Producciones in Seville, Playground Festival/STUK in Leuven, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo.
One year ago, If I Can’t Dance invited Valcárcel 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. Valcárcel 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. 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 Valcárcel Medina
Commissioner: If I Can’t Dance
Storytellers CAC Brétigny: Esther Ferrer, Jon Mikel Euba, and Pierre Bal-Blanc
Performance in Resistance
Isidoro Valcárcel 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 Valcárcel Medina for Performance in Residence took place in Het Veem Theater in February 2011. Click here for information and pictures of the evening.
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 (CAC Brétigny, Greater Paris; If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Amsterdam; Playground Festival in STUK arts centre/Museum M, Leuven; Tate Modern, London) financed by the European Union.
Biographies
Isidoro Valcárcel 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.