Led by well-established writer Susana Medina and Silvia Terrón, fresh from Madrid’s book fair, this bi-lingual (English-Spanish) reading will combine words and images by video-artists Derek Ogbourne and Nacho R. Piedra.
Artist: Susana Medina/Derek Ogbourne and Silvia Terron/Nacho R. Piedra
When: Mon, 08/11/2010
Event Times: 7pm
Venue Details: The Gallery.Soho, 125 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0EW
Susana Medina — Maverick writer Susana Medina will be reading from her novel, Philosophical Toys, a tale about being immersed in a world of things and fetishes where objects have become an inextricable part of our landscape. Her writing will be accompanied by video-work in collaboration with Derek Ogbourne narrated by Melancholy Maaret.
Susana Medina is currently writing Spinning Days of Night, which has been awarded a substantial Arts Council Writing Grant. She is the author of Cuentos Rojos (Red Tales), which includes the Max Aub International Short Story Prize and will be published in a bilingual edition in 2011 by Araña editorial, the acclaimed poetry collection Souvenirs del Accidente, which includes aphorisms, ballads and poems, and her first novel in English, Philosophical Toys. Born in Hampshire but brought up in Valencia, Medina has spent her entire writing career in London, where she lives since 1987. She wrote her first three books in Spanish, whilst confining articles, reviews and essays for art catalogues to English, which she learnt as a second language during her teenage years. Her PhD about Borges, Borgesland, was an opportunity to use two languages simultaneously. In her first novel in English, Philosophical Toys, she also traces the dislocations of adopting a second language for writing.
Medina’s literary work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines and has been translated into several languages. From the Times Literary Supplement to 3:AM Magazine, she has published a number of essays on literature, art, cinema and photography. She has always written across a number of art forms, being interested in the gaps between the arts, genres and disciplines, the playful and the dead serious… Her interdisciplinary work includes the photo-essay ‘The Side-effects of Reading’, ‘The Borges Tree’ shown at Tate Modern, her highly praised short film Buñuel’s Philosophical Toys (24 mins) and she has also curated various well received international art shows in abandoned spaces.
Derek Ogbourne — Derek Ogbourne studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1983-1989) and has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad. Exhibitions include What Make You, What Makes You at the South London Gallery, Space International, Valencia, Spain and The Last Image, Museum of Optography at the Kurpfälzisches Museum der Stadt Heidelberg, Germany.
Ogbourne’s work is powered by the frenetic and exhilarating ongoing plot of big themes: physical life, death, violence, beauty and the sublime; landscape and vision. Pulsing with the strengths and frailties of what it is like to be human, his obsessive preoccupations result in deeply complex, emotionally engaging artworks. He is best known for video works such as ‘Gravity and Others’, ‘Struggle and Magic Mountain’. Ogbourne’s latest works range from his cinematic piece ‘Death and the Monument’ and ‘Flesh’ – to his clinically sublime photographs of dissected cows’ eyes and recent series of large sensitive landscape drawings.
Silvia Terrón is a Spanish writer, translator and journalist. She is also an expert on cultural diplomacy with a special interest on citizen’s access to shape culture as a public good. Her first poetry book, “La imposibilidad gravitatoria” (Spanish for “The impossibility of gravity”) was published in 2009 by Ediciones Torremozas. In her poetry, she explores the folds of reality and the difficulty of finding and choosing one’s voice, the secrets hidden in the corners of thought and how images become blurred to reveal hidden meanings. After living and working in London for five years, she now resides in Paris.
In this reading she will be accompanied by Nacho R. Piedra, Spanish video artist and producer who has directed videos for some of the best independent Spanish and international bands, including Xiu Xiu, The Zephyrs, Grupo Salvaje or Sr. Chinarro. His first major work, “The Guilt” for Spanish music band Migala got the Best Video Prize at the 3rd Mieres Short-Film Festival. Afterwards he became a regular member of the band, projecting his visuals during their gigs. His documentary “Sigue y tuerce ahí” was projected in the 40th edition of the Gijón Film Festival. For years he has combined his work as independent video artist and producer with film critic. He was also a member of the production team of “Carta Blanca”, a programme of Spanish national TV in which an important figure of the arts became the guest editor of each episode, with “carte blanche” to choose the guests and contents.
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The interview! Susana Medina & Derek Ogbourne
How would you define yourselves?
Derek is an artist and I’m a writer. We work separately and our conceptual concerns are quite different. Sometimes Derek writes and I do art pieces or take pictures. Occasionally we collaborate with each other in a piece, organizing a show or in a book. We are exposed to each other’s work all the time, although Derek has not read my work in Spanish.
What can the audience expect from your collaboration with Spain NOW!?
Beauty, ideas, humour.
What do you think your collaboration with Spain NOW! will bring for you?
The artists and collaborators in Spain NOW! are a fascinating bunch of people. And it’ll be interesting to interact with a new audience.
Describe or give us some insights about your creative process.
Susana: There’s time to dream and then there’s time to work, work and work. You get an idea and then you have to build the iceberg (even if it is a minute one) and you never get to see the whole picture, but bits. Those bits can be very beautiful and revealing. It’s a way of learning about the world and the potential that you have within you, exploring your own mind. To be able to communicate all this and touch the reader is an extraordinary process.
Derek: The same as above, work, work, work, hard to define my particular creative process in that it is a complex process, a chess game on ice comes to mind.
Where have you shown internationally before? And in Spain?
Derek: France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan, U.A.E, USA and Valencia, Spain,
What can you say about the current state of Spanish culture within your field? What other emergent Spanish artists can you recommend for those who enjoy your work?
Susana: I don’t necessarily look at literature. I encounter things and the things that stay are those that surprise me. I saw this film recently, Chaotic Ana, by Julio Medem. It’s a rare and kind of imperfect film, but I really rate it. There’s this Spanish artist living in London, Angela de la Cruz. She uses twisted, abused canvasses to make sculptures that are like vulnerable creatures in excruciating situations. She’s been nominated for The Turner Prize … Hope she gets it. I also read Pui-Mic by Julia de la Rúa, a novel about the immigration from the East, interesting.
Derek: I have no idea as I haven’t been following cultural trends globally, even in my own country I don’t follow things that closely.
Do you have affinities or share interests with any artists working in the UK?
Derek: Yes, of course, but more socially, I know where their work is coming from.
Susana: Right now, there’s a kind of literary debate about innovative fiction versus mainstream fiction going on in Facebook and Twitter. Most innovative writers face the same problems internationally, to wit, poor distribution and visibility. Social networks are changing that for the better. When I first came to London I was baffled to see how close my work was to Deborah Levy’s. More recently, I’ve become interested in the work of Steven Hall.
Define your work (either in general or your collaboration with Spain Now) in a sentence …
Derek: Always find this difficult to answer as it always requires a complex explanation that is totally inadequate. I could only describe the moment I am living in right now and that has already gone. I am however, interested in history and especially inventing it.
Susana: I’m interested in the unclassifiable, in innovation, in gathering within the same space different impulses: beauty and humour, the sensuality of thought, our tragicomic messiness and vulnerability.
Susana Medina defines herself as:
- a “saying”: There is a Spanish saying that I used to love: ’Cada loco con su tema’, which literally means ‘Each madman has his theme’ and the English render as: ‘To each man, his folly’. It’s interesting than in Spanish, the subject is already a madman. It implies that everybody is mad and that madness takes on a theme in each one of us. Becket said: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better’. The idea of failing better is an interesting one.
- a geographical accident: An archipelago. Clusters of ideas that are connected by a narrative sea.
- a time of the day: Always the night. I love the night.
- a decade/century from the past (or the future): It’ll have to be the future, a realm of sheer possibility, preferably more humane than everything that has happened up till now.
- an animal/mineral/plant: The chameleon, of the Truman Capote variety type. An assortment of minerals, rather than just one. Mint.
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The interview! Silvia Terrón & Nacho R. Piedra
How would you define yourselves?
Nacho: If we are talking about my work: I’m an independent cameraman, editor, writer, producer and director. I am not independent by choice, it is a way of survival. Being all these things (sometimes in the same project) is more the result of a need than a personal decision. In the early years in my career I spent many hours working almost for free, here and there. It was great, don’t get me wrong: I’ve always loved cinema and being able to work with images was the best thing that could happen to me. Now, 10 years on, I have to choose each project very carefully. I still need to pay my bills on top of being emotional and romantic. This has opened my eyes and has allowed me to work in different fields. I´m not longer sure if I´m only a director or someone who is still looking for a “normal” job would allow me to keep doing the things I love. In short: I am simply a cinema lover.
What can the audience expect from your collaboration with Spain NOW!?
Nacho: Honesty, passion, humour.
What do you think your collaboration with Spain NOW! will bring for you?
Nacho: Joy. To work with a talented friend. To finally show my work in the UK. Something special I will always remember.
Describe or give us some insights about your creative process.
Nacho: It depends on the project. Working in a video clip, in a short film or a documentary differ a lot. It’s usually linked to my personal moment, my mood, the people around me and the things I see and feel (real or fictional). I can say there’s always something from the things I have grown up with: scary movies, animation, super 8… I usually am only able to see this when the work is finished. Sometimes I see scary things that define me more than I would like to…
Where have you shown internationally before? And in Spain?
Nacho: If we forget about the ‘borderlessness’ of Internet and TV channels, my visual work has been seen live in numerous gigs with Migala, the band I was involved with some years ago, in countries like Portugal, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Also some International festivals have projected some of my video clips.
The same in Spain: gigs in almost every part of my country and exhibitions in several festivals. Also, my work in Spanish national TV has been shown abroad. People around the world have contacted me and it feels very special. I have also been contacted regarding my work online, but at this point of the XXI century it’s even more exiciting and amazing to find someone who still watches tv cultural programs…
What can you say about the current state of Spanish culture within your field? What other emergent Spanish artists can you recommend for those who enjoy your work?
Nacho: I think Spain has very talented people fighting against an ancient and boring system of “mass culture”. If you look for good pieces and good professionals you can find them, but you have to search very carefully. Maybe we need some kind of V for Vendetta character to emerge… Regarding emergent Spanish artists, I have to say that right now I’m not very linked to the visual art scene but to the independent music scene.
Do you have affinities or share interests with any artists working in the UK?
Nacho: I’m a big fan of The Cure, does that count?
Define your work (either in general or your collaboration with Spain Now) in a sentence…
Nacho: “Drawing between the light and dark” (taken from “Quicksand”, a song by David Bowie revisited by Dinosaur Jr.).
Nacho R. Piedra defines himself as:
- a “saying”: “No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano” (something like “no matter how early you get up, you can’t make the sun rise any sooner”). This sentence suggests you should be patient with the things around you. Everything has a process. Maybe I like it because I hate to wake up early in the morning. It is also somehow linked to Kubrick’s “The Shining” saying “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” that Jack Nicholson’s character writes over and over again. This sentence was translated with the one below in the Spanish version.
- a geographical accident: The “Lost” Island
- a time of the day: Midnight, maybe…
- a decade/century from the past (or the future): The 2015 of Back To The Future Part II
an animal/mineral/plant:
- Tiger / (Gem)Stones / La Dama de Noche (Cestrum Nocturnum) (Lady Nigh)