BUILDING RAW NARRATIVES IN ART DOCUMENTATION
BUILDING RAW NARRATIVES IN ART DOCUMENTATION
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BUILDING FUTURE NARRATIVES IN ART DOCUMENTATION
I am not just documenting culture, I am reshaping how it's archived, experienced, and understood.
Documenting
In 2024, I immersed myself in the creative universe of AP&A, a universe shaped by Andrea Peña and her extraordinary team. They welcomed me into their world, allowing me to explore their artistic process—an intricate, deeply human journey where vulnerability meets rigor and artistic collaboration. From March to December, I observed bodies moving with a language that defied words, confronting the familiar and stepping boldly into the unknown. Through my lens, I documented moments where movement unraveled profound questions about what it means to exist together as humans and in constant negotiation with ourselves and others.
the creative process
This journey took me to artistic residencies, rehearsals charged with physical exhaustion and personal challenges, and behind-the-scenes moments that felt like family vacations. The works Bogotá, Replica, and Uaque served as my compass throughout this journey. In particular, Uaque—a collaboration with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Shelley, featuring the breathtaking visuals of Edward Burtynsky—became the pinnacle of this exploration. I accompanied the artists during the week leading up to their world premiere in Ottawa, a time when creation and uncertainty danced hand in hand.
Beyond Documentation
SOMOURE
As the video artist behind Somoure, I have been documenting and visually interpreting Mònica’s ongoing artistic research since September 2023. Her project critically examines assistive robotics through an experimental and interdisciplinary lens, developed in collaboration with the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI CSIC-UPC) in Barcelona. Rather than approaching care robots as purely technical solutions, Somoure explores them as complex assemblages shaped by social, emotional, and political interconnections—revealing how these technologies reflect and reshape our collective imaginaries about care, dependency, and the future.
Through my lens, I translate the artist’s inquiry into a visual language that captures both the conceptual framework and the intimate gestures embedded in the research process. My role involves not just documentation, but an embodied, interpretive engagement with the themes of the work, amplifying its critical questions through moving image.
I have the privilege of being invited to collaborate with Mónica Rikić on her research and artistic project Somoure, contributing as art director and leading the visual conceptualization, photography, and technical production. It’s an honour to share this creative process with composer Rodolfo Venegas, whose original music brings an additional emotional and atmospheric depth to the work. As artists, we engage in a multidisciplinary dialogue that brings Mónica’s critical exploration of assistive robotics to life through sound, image, and embodied storytelling.
This video is part of the documentation of the artistic research process of the project Somoure by Mónica Rikić in collaboration with the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial IRI - CSIC-UPC and co-commissioned by HacTe with the support of (IRI) - CSIC-UPC, and the S+T+ARTS programme of the European Union.
Documentary filmed during Mónica Rikić's residency at the Technology, Art, and Games (TAG) research center, as part of Hexagram’s collaboration with the European Media Art Platform (EMAP) international residency program.
EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING
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EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING >>>
EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING
Found Footage
Don Federico is an experimental video that, in a simple but troubling way, reveals how the naturalization of violence can be transmitted by cultural expressions. This video experiments with the juxtaposition of found footage and uses a song called Don Federico to create an unsettling dialogue between a seemingly innocent clapping game and real cases of feminicide. This footage is mixed with news stories showing the places in which female bodies have been found and with an audio footage borrowed from a real case of attempted intimate feminicide in Chile. Through the juxtaposition of diverse images, Don Federico invites the viewer to reflect on the naturalization of gender-based violence while making visible how everyday actions, embedded in education and the family environment, may contribute to the naturalization of gender-based violence. In a truly simple and efficient way, this video piece illustrates one of the many ways in which cultural expressions can support a system that naturalizes violence. It is a structure where killing a woman, chopping her into little pieces and cooking her in a frying pan is seen as a joke.
Immersive VIDEOGAME
SOLA is a video game that embodies the climate of tension, discomfort and fear that can be experienced while walking alone at night in cities where gender-based violence is embedded in everyday life. SOLA challenges the usual understanding of games as a source for entertainment and it builds on the concept of play to explore a video game as an instrument for conceptual thinking and a tool to work through social issues.
Street harassment sits on the base of a structure that perpetuates a culture of violence. Feminicide is the ultimate link of a chain of violence entrenched in a structure that exploits, desecrates and discards our bodies. There was one feminicide every 30 hours in Argentina in 2017. We were told that it was our responsibility to not be aggressed, raped or even killed. (extract from “A Research-Creation Approach to Gender-Based Violence” Isidori 2018)
NEWS
NEW PROJECT IN DEVELOPMENT
THE CHOSEN ONE / EL ELEGIDO
The Chosen One is a transmedia project that challenges storytelling conventions. Through a short film and an immersive audiovisual experience, it invites audiences to live the story in a narratively innovative way. This experience consists of a live band and is strongly supported by a 2D short film as its narrative core. El Elegido redefines the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds in a show designed for all kinds of audiences. Each experience offers an innovative journey, inviting the public to be part of a constantly evolving narrative that challenges traditional concert and performance formats.
Between Green and White Gold: Mapping Green Extractivism Foundations for Immersive Documentary
THE FUTURE NARRATIVES PROJECT
The Future Narratives Project will explore new technologies to create immersive experiences that authentically capture the lived experience of artists during their creative processes and also capture the generation of knowledge through artistic production.
Upcoming workshop with SIT & Eastern Bloc
CASE STUDY 1 >>> AP&A
CASE STUDY 2 >>> THE CHOSEN ONE
NEW WORKSHOPS COMING UP!
Playing sola
Playing SOLA is an immersive activity designed to invite participants to experience the SOLA video game and engage in a collective reflection on their experiences and perceptions of insecurity in public spaces.
This activity is part of an ongoing research project on gender-based violence that Agustina Isidori has been leading since 2016, blending art, technology, and social reflection to create meaningful experiences and inspire change.
Berta Valenciano and Anna Biel Ventura from the Ripollès Social Welfare Center will be in charge of the community dynamization. The activities will take place in Pardines, Ripoll and Sant Joan de les Abadesses.
