'Fleeting Stories', the third exhibition of the Universo Video series, is inaugurated at LABoral this Friday 8th
Mujeres and Kokoshca perform music for the exhibition opening which also hosts a talk with the curator María del Carmen Carrión LABoral will concurrently offer an audiovisual cycle on its television channel with works by Patricia Esquivias, Dora García, Cecilia Barriga and Stephen Dowskin
A still of the Wilson Diaz's work 'Baño en el cañito' Photo: Courtesy of the artist
An exercise in the reconstruction of memory is the common thread which guided the curator María del Carmen Carrión in her selection of video art works that LABoral will show in the exhibition Historias fugaces [Fleeting Stories] starting on 8th July. The exhibit, sponsored by Fundación Telefónica, is part of the Universo Vídeo trilogy in which the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation explores this medium in presenting works produced from the 60s until the present day based on the perspective brought by curators from different places in the world.
Two intersecting planes give form to Historias Fugaces: historical evolution and narrative. The work by 12 Latin American artists bears testimony to our relationship with time, of collective forgetfulness and the choices we make when remembering and, at the same time, highlights the way in which we recuperate forms in order to tell these stories. The videos which form part of the exhibition are centred on short stories which are told using different strategies. The practices include the recreation of moments from family and collective stories, minor gests produced for the camera, the archaeology of memory, the exploration of mental spaces and the staging of ephemeral moments. Facing the tide of cultural amnesia, these works take us on a visit to the past, not with the desire to relive it, but to challenge us to a reading of it on multiple planes.
The exhibition stays open at the Mediateca Expandida at LABoral until 31st October 2011 and includes works by Edgardo Aragón (Mexico, 1985); Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico, 1975); Alejandro Cesarco (Uruguay, 1975); Wilson Díaz (Colombia, 1963); Claudia Joskowicz (Bolivia, 1968); Marcellvs L. (Brasil,1980); Óscar Muñoz (Colombia, 1951); Miguel Ángel Ríos (Argentina, 1943);Raquel Schefer (Portugal, 1981); Melanie Smith (United Kingdom, 1965) with Rafael Ortega; and Javier Téllez (Venezuela, 1964).
Presentation by the curator
On Friday at 7 pm, the actual curator of the exhibition, María del Carmen Carrión, will lead a talk in the Chill-out area at the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation in which she will speak about the artists and the works presented in the exhibit. Entrance is free.
Works on LABtv
As an additional activity, although closely related to the exhibition, LABtv -LABoral’s online television channel- will present a series of works by artists dealing with similar themes to those presented in Historias fugaces during the course of the exhibition. The exhibitory proposal will be completed by means of a series of reflection on image, time, memory and forgetting.
Beyond the classical documentation in printed version which invariably accompanies all exhibitions, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial has reached a series of collaborative agreements with a variety of experimental video and film distributors including Hamaca, Lux and Light Cone. The aim is no other than to offer the spectator the opportunity to view, through the Centre’s online platform (http://www.laboralcentrodearte.tv/), audiovisual content that discusses, reinforces or questions the works on exhibit at Mediateca Expandida, contributing at the same time to the development of a platform which brings together artists, distribution companies and spectators.
The works which can be seen on LABtv, in weekly periods, are the following:
Folklore, by Patricia Esquivias
All the stories, by Dora García
ImFluss by Cecilia Barriga
Mon by Stephen Dwoskin
Opening Concert
In addition, the Catalan group Mujeres and Kokoshca, originally from Navarra, will perform music at the inauguration. Mujeres will open the concert, organised in collaboration with 2Monkeys, from 9 pm onwards, in the Patio at the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation. Later on, from 10.30 pm, the music is relocated to La Terraza [the terrace] at Laboral, with the performance by Kokoshca. Entrance is free in both cases.
Mujeres is a group that in less than a year (their debut album, s/t -Sones, 2009- was released in December) has succeeded in moving on from playing in bars in Barcelona, taking their music –a mix of garage, rock’n’roll and punk- to a multitude of cities, concert halls and festivals in different countries, performing at more than 50 events throughout this year.
Especially remarkable are their three performances at Primavera Sound 2010, the tour which took them to the United Kingdom in May (The Great Escape, Brighton; Liverpool SoundCity; Manchester and London) and their summer visit to the Italian festivals Soundlabs and Here I Stay. Before this, Mujeres was one of the groups placed among the 10 finalists in the international contest Diesel U:Music, which thousands of artists from all over the world take part in. For this reason, the prestigious production company Blinkink made a video clip in London of the song Reyerta which is being endlessly broadcast on MTV. The reviews of their concerts, their instant hits, full of energy, along with the unanimous reaction by the public and critics has made Mujeres into a publicly acclaimed group.
Currently, they are presenting their album at festivals and concerts, including a new visit to the United Kingdom in October, and their first performance in the United States took place in the Spring of 2011.
http://www.myspace.com/mujeresdebarcelona
Kokoshca formed in 2007 as a duo. Boredom in Pamplona and Iñaki and Amaia’s need to make music led them to start playing together and making songs. Amaia’s gentle voice is mixed with Iñaki’s distorted guitar sounds and more obscure vocals.
They give their first concert in a tiny bar. They continue making songs and are offered more concerts. Their songs performed live need another member and they decide to look for a drummer, which is when Javi joins and now as three, they give their first concert in Madrid. At this concert, the label Birra y Perdiz takes them into its arms. In the basement where they rehearse, they record and self-produce Únete a Kokoshca (Byp, 2008) - a compilation of all the first songs by the group.
In 2009 they put together the second record and consolidate as a group. All three compose, sing and are key elements in the project. La fuerza (ByP, 2010) is released in February 2010.
In 2011 they edit the album Gernika (Kafe Arrastoak, 2011), a live acoustic performance recorded in the city with the same name as the album’s title. In September 2011 the group will edit a single, a 7” vinyl EP with Elefant Records.
http://kokoshca.bandcamp.com/
