Belen Zahera • Ob Skené
Curated by
Veronica Valentini
with he partnership of
Karlos Gil (soundscape), Jasmine Delle Vedove (voice) and Controlmad
27.11.2017 h 19.00
Belen Zahera’s residency is part of Theory of Leaves, an itinerant artistic research program conceived by EMMA and developed in collaboration with Careof.
As part of the collaboration with EMMA, Careof presents Ob skené, a sound installation by Belen Zahera (Madrid, 1985), conceived as part of a broader body of work that began last October during her residency in Milan. The project investigates language as an ambiguous tool—used to understand, but also, more often than not, to deceive.
In ancient Greek theatre, the death of characters and other violent acts had to take place ob skené, that is, offstage, because they were considered too offensive to be witnessed directly by the audience. Over the years, linguists have suggested that the etymology of the word obscene, meaning “that which is offensive to the senses or taste,” might trace back to the origins of theatre and more specifically to the term ob skené, given their similar morphology and the association with concealment.
As logical or compelling as this theory may seem, the truth is that there has never been a clear continuity between the two words. The adjective obscene had nothing to do with the word skené or scene and instead finds its roots in the language of omens, in foreseeing the future, and refers to a bad omen—thus becoming unpleasant to see.
Between what must be hidden and what appears as a sign of ill omen—that is, between invisibility and visibility—a logic of discontinuity, based on language, is constantly at work. Language becomes an impure operation of masking and unmasking, a tool to understand, but also, more often than not, to deceive. In line with these ideas and the artist’s general practice, the project Ob skené delves into the functioning of language and matter from the perspective of cutting, interruption, and what is left out or gained in the act of such cutting or association. The work takes the form of a partial scene in the form of an audio installation, and experiments with the unfolding of mental images, halfway between memory and imagination.
ARTIST BIO
Belén Zahera (Madrid, 1985)
makes art, researches and occasionally writes. Her work usually intertwines reiterative figures and discursive strategies through using the media as text, sculpture, installation or video.
She is interested in the surface, in the brain functioning and other self-organized systems and in the tension between form and content, that actually explores through the relation between “ensayo” (which means both wise and challenge in spanish) within herself. She works in Madrid.
She graduated in Fine Arts at University Complutense (Madrid), and obtained an MA in Fine Art at la Slade School of Fine Art (University College London). Currently she is a PhD student at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Fine Arts and studies theatre direction. She worked with Silvia Cuenca Sanz (zahera+cuenca), has co-founded Salon Flux (London) and has been a member of Proyecto Rampa (Madrid). She is currently part of the collaborative project (play)ground-less.
She won the Visual Arts Grant (Botín Foundation, 2014) and the Generation Art Price (Fundación Montemadrid 2014)
EMMA
Emma is a non-profit organisation founded in Spain in 2016 from the desire to support and share artistic knowledge production and practice by creating learning and residential opportunities for artists and other cultural producers through diverse forms of presence such collective gatherings and presentations.
Emma works as a self-organised collaborative and curatorial initiative and operates on a national and international scale starting the annual agenda with an encounter among an ensemble of guests temporally gathered in picked venues. Context (hosting structure and territory) and content (common studies) are taken into account for the construction of the meaning of the encounter itself whose outcomes will inform the program of residencies and exhibitions that has to come elsewhere. A publication with the contributions of all participants will complete the ongoing exploration. Emma and the annual roaming program of artistic research is conceived and curated by Veronica Valentini and developed & co-produced in partnership with a multiplicity of associates (individuals, nonprofits and institutions) coming from various areas of society aiming to support artistic practice during the project and production phases.
