PATRICIA ESQUIVIAS

FOLKLORE #1
2006
Video,15′

FOLKLORE #2
2008
Video, 15′

Videos Folklore #1 and Folklore #2 are the first of an ongoing series of informative lectures about Spain, its history and image. Folklore deals with events of historic relevance and parallel stories recorded in the collective “folk” memory. Employing modest aesthetics and unrehearsed speech to narrate these stories, Esquivias weaves together unrelated facts presenting history-making as a democratic, continuous, permeable and participatory activity. In fact, the lecture is seen through the eyes and hands of the lecturer. We follow her manually selecting and reselecting a scrapbook of images, consulting hand written notes and watching the clock. In Folklore #1 Esquivias continually returns to two distinct threads. Commencing with the 36-year long dictatorship in Spain, she enters the personal trajectory of Franco protégé Jesús Gil who abuses his position of minor power, amasses a small fortune, purchases a soccer club and dies, after betting that he could eat twenty fried eggs in one go. The other narrative follows the rise and decline of rave music events in Valencia, which began some years after Franco’s death on 1975. Folklore #2 draws similarities between King Phillip II of Spain (1527-1598) and Julio Iglesias and global empires then and now. Once again mixing historical facts about Phillip II’s reign and tabloid gossip about Iglesias and his private life, Esquivias takes us on an educational journey from Spain’s colonial global empire to the dark, isolated Spain of Franco’s reign, to the sun-drenched Spain of present day mass tourism.

PATRICIA ESQUIVIAS was born 1979 in Caracas, VE and raised in Madrid, ES. She studied in London and San Francisco. Since 2005 her video works have been shown in Madrid (GalerÌa Maisterravalbuena), Germany (Frankfurter Kunstverein, 5th Berlin Biennale), New York (White Columns, Murray Guy), Italy (Arcos Museum, Artissima), Amsterdam (Stedelijk Museum Bureau) and England (East International, Royal College of Art). In 2007 she was recipient of the Present Future and the East International awards. Upcoming shows include Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis and Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid.