18 pictures and 18 stories

18 pictures and 18 stories is a project by Bulegoa z/b, carried out in dialogue with If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution of Amsterdam. It presents and accompanies Performance in Resistance by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina in two different formats: via series of stages in seven cities in 2012, and in a book.

18 pictures and 18 stories / 18 fotografías y 18 historias is a bilingual (English an Spanish) publication designed by Filiep Tacq. It includes a reproduction of the photo series Performance in Resistance by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina and text contributions by the narrators of the seven stages as well as a text by the artist. The book is a production funded by Corpus: a network for performance practice.

The book is on sale for 25€ and can be obtained at the Bulegoa z/b office, or by mail order from tienda@bellezainfinita.org

The full text of “Cómo leer el valor de una resistencia (a 120 por hora)” by Jon Mikel Euba, part of which is published in the book 18 pictures and 18 stories / 18 fotografías y 18 historias, can be found here.

In Autumn 2010, If I Can’t Dance invited Valcárcel Medina and Bulegoa z/b to take part in Performance in Residence, a program that studies and researches performances from the past from the perspective of current artistic practice. Valcárcel Medina responded to the invitation with Performance in Resistance, 18 photographs mounted on passe-partout that show as many actions carried out by the artist in different cities between 1965 and 1993. The set of images taken by Rocío Areán Gutiérrez blurs the limits between the lived moment and the document, between what happened and fiction. Performance in Resistance also shows the guiding principle of Valcárcel Medina’s practice, his refusal to submit to the conventions of any institution or discipline, including the discipline of history. Such performative resistance arises from the artist’s conviction that his only material is his historical time, and that the imagination “hides a wealth which drives the world”.

18 pictures and 18 stories conceived investigation as an imaginative practice which can transform and reactivate its objects of study. The work took the form of an itinerant framework which produced narratives. In each of the seven stages, three people were invited to take one of the eighteen photographs that make up Performance in Resistance and propose a story. After the presentations at each stage, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina was available on the telephone to answer questions from the narrators or public.

Tour 18 pictures and 18 stories / 18 fotografías y 18 historias

* 26 February 2012: If I Can’t Dance at Het Veem Theater, Amsterdam
Storytellers: Moosje Goosen, Esteban Pujals Gesalí, Emilio Moreno

* 20 April 2012: Bulegoa z/b, Bilbao
Storytellers: José Díaz Cuyás, Azucena Vieites, Jaime Vallaure

* 6 July 2012: Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona
Storytellers: Nuria Enguita Mayo, Aimar Pérez Galí, Manuel Martínez Ribas

* 27 October 2012: CAC Brétigny, Greater Paris
Storytellers: Esther Ferrer, Jon Mikel Euba, Pierre Bal-Blanc

* 6 November 2012: BNV Producciones, Seville
Storytellers: Miren Jaio, Isaías Griñolo, Pedro G. Romero

* 11 November 2012: Playground Festival, STUK/M Museum, Leuven
Storytellers: Koen Brams, Dora García, Myriam Van Imschoot

* 29 November 2012: MAC São Paulo, São Paulo
Storytellers: GEACC, Juan Domínguez, Carla Zaccagnini
Exhibition until 28 July

* 4 October 2013: Tate Modern, London
Book launch of 18 pictures and 18 stories / 18 fotografías y 18 historias, lecture “Ser traducido” (“To Be Translated”) by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, round table with Valcárcel Medina, Esther Ferrer and Dora García

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 financed by the European Union.