Saladrigues, Mireia C.

*1978 in Terrassa, ES
lebt und arbeitet in Barcelona, ES
Studium an der University of Barcelona, ES
und KuvataideAkatemIia, FL
Studium an der MACBA, PEI Independent Studies Program by Comtemporary Art Museum of Barcelona, ES
Ph.D. at University of Barcelona, ES

 

Ausstellungen [Auswahl]:

2011 Comportamientos del público, Espai 13, Funcadió Miró, Barcelona, ES
2011 Composició del lloc. Caja Madrid, Barcelona, ES
2011 Impossibilitats, Espai Guinovart, Agramunt, ES
2010 0912 10. Homesession. Barcelona, ES
2010 Projecte E/F, Loop 2010,Francesca Bonemaison, Barcelona, ES
2009 Zoolar Eclipse. By Ane Agirre and Juan Canela. EspaiDos, Sala Mancunill, Terrassa, ES

 

Projecte E/F

Date: 2008
Length: 14:20 min.
Format:  16:9
Specification: Colour, Sound

 

Was bedeutet Provinzialismus in der Kunst: sich mit lokalen Problemen auseinanderzusetzen oder ein schlechter Künstler zu sein? Ist Kunst ein kollektives oder ein persönliches Unterfangen? Bedeutet die Institutionalisierung der Kunstpraxis eine bessere Unterstützung für Künstler oder schränkt es sie in ihrer Ausdrucksfreiheit ein? In ihrer inszenierten Konversation mit drei jungen spanischen Menschen, die zusammen in einem Atelier frühstücken, wirft Mireia Saladrigues viele Fragen auf, die sich mit der Praxis und der Funktion von Kunst beschäftigen. Die Diskussionspartner zitieren aus Saladrigues gesammeltem Interviewmaterial, das aus dreißig Gesprächen mit unterschiedlichen Leuten der spanischen Kunstszene entstanden ist: mit Künstlern, Kuratoren, Kritikern und Angestellten verschiedener kultureller Institutionen. Für die Herstellung ihrer Videoarbeit benutzt Saladriguez eine soziologische Methode des Sammelns und Analysierens von Informationen und kommentiert dadurch die Art des zeitgenössischen Kunstdiskurses, der zu einer weitschweifigen Angelegenheit geworden ist. Der Künstler lebt eben nicht länger abgehoben in seinem Elfenbeinturm, sondern hat sich in einen gesellschaftlich umtriebigen Agenten verwandelt, der die Bedeutung von Kunst im Prozess des Networking generiert.
OC

 

Interview:

► 1. Your video has been chosen among over 1700 festival entries to participate in Videonale 13. How central is the video medium to your overall artistic production? Is it complimentary to other media you use or do you work exclusively with video?

 

This is the only serious video I’ve ever produced. The media of my projects can vary depending on the content. Recently I haven’t felt it necessary to produce another one. The Projecte E/F story is based on thirty interviews I conducted in order to find out what’s behind the idea that as an artist it “is better to work abroad than in your country” or “that you need to go abroad in order to have success”. When working on this, I decided that the best way to organize the pieces of conversations that I found relevant was to have some actors re-enact the parts in a single, edited dialogue, and this was very possible when working with video.
Even though this work can be perfectly viewed on screen, it was originally conceived as an installation. The installation consists of a TV on a table with a book, which you can’t actually read that contains the original interviews.


► 2. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

 

I’m very interested in reception, in how and by whom a work of art is received. It is obvious that when making a project I’m previewing and conceiving a certain kind of public, but how are these spectators and under which circumstances do they get interested in my work? What does it mean to be the recipient? And what is the real power of spectators when works require a public audience for completion?

 

These questions were not so urgent in Projecte E/F, as it instead attempted to analyze and question some other ideas I commented before, to build a work from doubt without pretending to create truth. But still, the audience is included in this video essay when the actors look at the camera and give additional information about institutions and some situations previously mentioned, as if providing footnotes to the spectators so that they may follow the conversation.


► 3. What artists do you relate to or find significant for your own
art-making?

 

Most of the time I am moved by particular works, not artists. But I do feel admiration for many projects from Harun Farocki, Marion Von Osten, Erick Beltrán, Pedro G. Romero, Ibon Aranberri, Dora García, Thomas Hirschhorn, Félix González-Torres, Janet Cardiff, Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Hito Steyerl and Andrea Fraser. In addition, I would need to mention the many colleagues or younger artists with whom I share common interests or whose work as well influences me.


► 4. Do you think the video medium can address social or political issues better than other art media?

 

Not necessarily. For example, and they are just coming to mind now, Francesco Torres and Fernando Sánchez Castillo have both produced excellent installations about the Civil War or historical memory like Oscura es la habitación donde dormimos or Manu militari. These are strong works about political issues that have been affecting Catalan and Spanish society that need a slow tempo and different codes of appreciation than those provided via an audiovisual language.

I personally think video can communicate more directly or quickly than other media. For instance, we could find many examples in Harun Farocki works. But of course, this depends as well on the narrative structure and many other decisions that the artist or the director makes.


In this case, I could take as an example a striking work that will be shown here: The Good Life by Katleen Vermier & Ronny Heiremans. It has a complex fictional story for talking about what’s happening nowadays related to market manipulation, life standards, economy, speculation and so on.

On the other hand, I would like to think that because we are surrounded by audiovisual impulses, the medium of video, as compared to other media, should be more familiar and comprehensible to the average spectator. Unfortunately this doesn’t really seem to be entirely true.


► 5. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Which of the two positions is close to your own art-making philosophy?

 

I think art can’t transform life directly, but I want to believe that it helps to awaken or enhance critical thought, as well as consciousness and intuition, which ultimately transform society. 


If I had to choose between the two positions, I’d say that I feel closer to the idea of art registering and reflecting life, largely because I normally collect lots of data and conduct a lot of research in the process of creating my projects. 


► 6. How do you understand success in an art-making career?

 

From my short experience, success is an important motivation to keep you working. It somehow validates what you do. But I believe that it is something that comes when you do good work. It can’t or shouldn’t be your first goal.


► 7. What is the most difficult and the most rewarding thing about making art/ being an artist?

 

Be honest. With yourself, with your work.


► 8. What are your upcoming projects?

 

I would like to highlight a new project, which will be shown in Barcelona, in Espai 13 at the Fundació Miró. I’m collaborating with a former security guard who worked in a Contemporary Art Museum for 5 years. I’ve convinced her to write her memories, putting special attention on museum visitors’ behaviour (which can sometimes be very unpredictable). Her anecdotes will be edited in a book.

I’m very interested in who writes history and constructs narrative, under which mechanisms an experience becomes a narrative, and, in spite of the subjectivity of its author, what makes a story valid, or even, true. But I mainly came up with this project because I’m very interested in how the public behaves in art institutions.  The rest of my upcoming projects will deal once more with audience, spectators, public... 


► 9. What do you do when you don't make art?

 

I guess nothing different than other people: I have fun with my friends, read, go to the cinema, hang around, observe (I love to observe and analyse!), cook, check out exhibitions, think, ride a bike, practise yoga, go to the woods or to beach, etc. 

Kalender

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