REGULAR
2002, DVD, color, sound, 20’ 38’’.
Performer: Francesc Pagès. Camera, edition, lighting and sound: Videostudi, Arian Botey, Claudia Bonet, Montse Terradas. Collaboration: Joan Colomer, Cristina Ferreira Andrade, Mariona Fernández, Chus Martínez. Location: Barcelona. Production: CGAC, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela. Premier: Xoán Anleo. Fricción, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, 2002.
Collection: CGAC, Santiago de Compostela. HC
I set out to deal with ideas of fiction or simalcrum. Regular makes a joke of certainty, a world in which reality and fiction are constantly confused. The main character – an executive – finds it impossible to carry any of the tasks he is allotted; we realise that this is due to his incapacity rather than the difficulty of the challenge. Presenting an intrepid mask of determination, comedy arises from his repeated attempts and failures.
My work always establishes a strong relationship with spaces and places. I occupy space, invade, explore, expose it in order to establish relationships between space, place and the protagonist/subject of the video piece. Regular occupies a space between performance and the everyday, between documentary and comedy. The audience is implicated through the blatant presence of the camera; the actor is clearly aware of the camera’s presence as it registers his conduct through the way that objects respond to the treatment they receive. The camera zooms out slowly in the manner of documentary film.
Lacking concentration, this disastrous character works and eats at the same time, never manages to carry out any of the tasks before him, fails to take a single decision, fails to meet the challenges of his private life, cannot even sleep. He becomes a figure of irony and we are made to doubt his role as besuited executive, a source of tension and comedy in the work.
