Patricia Esquivias

May 5 – June 23 2013

To tell her stories, Patricia Esquivias’ (*1979 in Caracas, lives and works in Madrid) medium of choice is video. She combines spoken language with a selection of film sequences and photography arranged on her computer screen; furthermore she adds original prints and little objects by holding them between the screen and the filming camera. This strategy of expanded montage is astonishing for two reasons: first, the possibility of simultaneous visual and acoustic references enables a high degree of complexity; second, the renunciation of additional postproduction in favour of a straightforward presentation makes the result an unpretentious and forthright video narrative. Patricia Esquivias takes acts of everyday life and uses them as the raw material for stories that are somewhere between the amazing and the bizarre; the result is a unique combination of verifiable reality, possible fact, authentic narration and individual fantasy.
At the Kunsthalle three major works are on display: The future was when? (2009); 111-119 Generalisimo Castellana (2013); and Folklore IV (2009). Folklore IV belongs to a four part video series in which various personal and historical facts are combined into weird stories about the culture of Spain. The future was when? introduces an artist named Susan Brown, who restored decaying mosaics in the New York Subway in a kind of guerrilla activity and produced miniatures of them for the New York Transit Museum. The most recent work 111-119 Generalisimo Castellana focuses on a 1950s apartment block in the outskirts of Madrid and its continually changing appearance due to renovation and residents.

Oliver Kielmayer