On 29 November 2012, the seventh, and final, installment of 18 pictures and 18 stories will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP), in the framework of the exhibition A Cidade e o Estrangeiro (The City and the Foreigner). This 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 – CNP will narrate stories about the pictures S/T (known as Paso de peatones) (many cities, 1971), El diccionario de la gente (São Paulo, 1976) and Etiquetas adhesivas (Buenos Aires, 1976). During the presentations, Valcárcel Medina is available on the phone for any question the audience or speaker might want to ask him.

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 Frérdérrique 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.

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 MAC USP: Juan Domínguez, Cristina Freire, and Carla Zaccagnini

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.

Juan Dominguez is a performer, choreographer, stage director and programmer who 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 est?n 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). He was 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).

Grupo de Estudio Arte Conceptual y Conceptualismos en el Museo (GEACC) is 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 São 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).