CLIMBING BUILDINGS
BilbaoArte. From April 11th to June 13th 2003. Bilbao.
Itziar Ocariz (San Sebastian, 1965) has turned her work into an apparatus that delves not only into personal, but also social tensions and places special emphasis on the relationship individual/society from a feminist perspective. Back in the '70's, under the motto "personal is political", the feminist movement began a new phase that, by overcoming the notion of the individual, searched for a concept that would assume the constituting factor of all human and social existence. This was when the consideration of an alternative concept of the subject acquired particular relevance: subject as a standpoint. This standpoint conceives the subject as emerging from historical experience and, in this respect, its internal characteristics are not as relevant as the external context in which they are situated. The subject's positional revaluation relativates its identity to a constantly changing context, a situation that includes a network of elements (others, economic conditions, cultural and political institutions, etc.). In this way, individual/society relationships were considered from a sexual perspective and new keys for understanding the contemporary subject became widely popular whilst, at the same time, specific paths of action were being put forward in order to achieve social equality between sexes. The work of Itziar Ocariz is comprehensible when considered as falling within this intellectual, social and artistic feminist tradition.
On the other hand, for some time now, the artist has combined these standpoints with international situational investigations related to culture and artistic production by applying her own concepts of "action and drift" as the methodology for her own work. In his basic document that forms the very foundation of situationalism, Guy Debord states that: "...we believe that the world must be changed. We want a change that will free society and the life we are living as much as possible. We know that this change is possible if we take the proper paths of action". Thus situationists were concerned about certain paths of action and the discovery of others - easily identifiable in the domains of culture and customs - as applied from the standpoint of an interaction of all revolutionary change. From this point of view, what we call culture not only manifests but also pre-establishes the possibilities of organising life in any chosen society. For situationists, the only valid experimental path open is based on the criticism of existing conditions and in their being deliberately overcome. Creation is not the conciliation of objects and shapes, but the invention of new laws governing these relationships. Among several different situationist procedures, drift is presented as being an interim technique for passing uninterruptedly through several different environments. The drift concept is indissolubly bound to the acknowledgement of effects having a psycho-geographic nature and the affirmation of a play-constructive behaviour, something that directly and completely opposes the classic notions of journey and trips in every possible way. The laws of drift permit us to establish the first pictures of psycho-geographic articulations of modern cities. Going far beyond the mere recognition of environmental units, main components and spatial localisation, their main transition axis, exits and defences are perceived with the difference being the fact that it is not a question of precisely defining long-lasting blocks, but rather transforming architecture and urban planning. To use the artist's own words, Itziar Ocariz proposes a series of actions that "consist in "transgressing" mandatory norms of behaviour and transit". In her understanding of drift being creative tradition, the artist carries out actions in urban surroundings, with special emphasis on the active characteristic of drift being a form of experimental behaviour.
After the artist's exhibition entitled "Peeing in Public and Private Places" that we in Bilbao could see recently in the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) in the "Gaur, Hemen, Orain" joint exhibition, BilboArte presents "Trepar Edificios" (Climbing Buildings). Action occurred at the heart of Bilbao's Plaza Circular on the 26th of January 2003. A woman climbed the façade of the RENFE building in the Abando train station in broad daylight, to the surprise of passers by. This proposal concerning the occupation and transit of members of the general public as ideological, and therefore political positioning, opens up new perspectives for the feminine subject as an entity that interacts with architecture and those male and female citizens using the space and who, in turn, inhabit the city. With "Climbing Buildings", new habitat and public space possibilities are opened up for the feminine subject, whilst revealing the nature of the interests that traditionally regulate them. Several cameras filmed the event simultaneously. Using these recordings/remnants of the action, the "Climbing Buildings" exhibition reconstructs the action, endowing the action with new senses and adapting it to the context of an exhibition hall.
Xabier Arakistain. Exhibition curator.
