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We Could Have Had It All: Itziar BARRIO

Presentation and screening

Thursday, 15th of May 2014, 7.30 p.m., at the new location of tranzit.ro/ Iași.
Alexandru Lăpușneanu Street
No. 7-9, Iași

In 2012, Itziar BARRIO was commissioned to realize a new work in the frame of ”Going Public, Telling as it is?” - ENPAP Symposium in Bilbao. The project ”We could Have had it all” was the result of her re-encounter with her native city in relation with her own topics of research and Consonni team, the institution that coordinated the production of the project in the frame of the European Network for Public Art Producers’s final event. Back in time, it was a question that transformed this work into an on-going process: “How would you transform this work into a site specific project somewhere else?”, a question that was based on a very personal, basic juxtaposition of images of the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao and the National Theatre in Iași.

Between 11th and 21st of May, Itziar Barrio is welcomed in Iași for a research period that will conclude in September 2014 with a new commission produced by tranzit.ro/ Iași. On the 15th of May you are welcomed to discuss together with the artist her processual mecanique.

“Through the project “We could have had it all”, Itziar Barrio assimilates different phenomena: the “people's mic” as a formula of popular protest in public squares, when it is forbidden to use amplifiers (Occupy Wall Street); the crystallisation of contemporary myths in mass concerts where pop stars invite their audience to continue their songs (Adele), and an ancestral form of communication that predates theatre (bertsolarismo). In all these cases, amplification of the voice and repetition are a constant. The microphone appears in all these manifestations as a prohibited and/or desired object. An instrument of power: to be snatched away, to facilitate, to share. This erect device is exactly what enables the amplification and repetition of voices, thoughts, ideas, and signature tunes, making the microphone a symbol of the public sphere and the transmission of stories.” (Going Public, Telling it as it is? ENPAP Symposium, Bilbao, 2012, www.e-n-p-a-p.net)

Itziar BARRIO was born in Bilbao and lives and works in New York City. Her work has been presented internationally, among other venues, at: Abrons Arts Center (NYC), ENPAP (European Network for Public Art Producers), ARTIUM Museum (Vitoria), Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (New York), New Museum Festival of Ideas (NYC), Havana Biennial (Cuba), White Box (NYC), Cervantes Institute (NYC), Rincón Projects (Bogota), International Festival Postelectronic Art (Italy), Pist Space (Istanbul), Art for Art`s Sake (Bologna), Gdansk Academy of Arts (Poland), Loop (Barcelona), Sala Rekalde (Bilbao) and Thomas Henry Ross Galerie (Montreal). Barrio has been awarded among others with the First Prize Ertibil and by Brooklyn Art Council, Spanish Ministry of Culture, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has attended a number of residencies including Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and The International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), www.itziarbarrio.com.