Carmen Roca Igual: ‘I like making accessible art’

‘We change as we are working’

Carmen is currently working on her very first feature film titled The Last Lola. “It’s not out yet. This is the first edit.” She has worked on the project on and off and it has been taking some time. She finds it both challenging and interesting that she herself has changed since it started. Naturally, this influences her present approach to editing the footage. “We change as we are working. The most constant thing in life is change.” She refers to the American film director and writer Miranda July, who spoke of ‘constantly coming of age’. Carmen is fascinated by change. “It is also the way I was brought up. We moved a lot when I grew up. I was never in the same school for longer than two years. This becomes part of how you understand the world. Sometimes a single conversation can make you grow.”

A modern way of painting

The fact that she was nominated in the Painting category makes Carmen smile. “I have expanded into multimedia, but I do paint and draw and I have always sketched before projects.” In her view, a moving image, such as a slow zoom, can be seen as a modern way of painting. “Colour, composition – it’s all part of it.” Carmen studied Interactive Media Design, a field she describes as ‘very technological’, but often integrates her video art into installations, creating situations for representation and reception. Her graduation thesis involved a comparison between masks, used in many cultures for ritual and performance, and face filters, used for representation in social media. Can we manipulate how we are perceived? And what does one moment of perception mean within the whole process of change? Carmen points out that, right now, face filters are not only outdated, but anathema – in 2020, they were the latest thing. This development is actually part of the story.

Windows and balconies

In view of all this, it is perhaps no surprise that Carmen is intrigued by windows and balconies, places where we not only observe, but are also being seen. “I was thoroughly shocked by the huge windows in the Netherlands. In many countries windows are small!” One wonders what this says about the Dutch… 

Carmen presented a work based on the idea of balconies at Prospects / Art Rotterdam last year (see her website at LINK https://carmenrocaigual.com), explaining that “when I decided to move my video-based practice into space I became aware of the physicality of the relationship between the viewer and the artwork. I realized the videos could come to life and the audience could be placed in the role of the character.” She would like to further develop the idea of balconies as tiny ‘stages’, where she can show many situations at the same time. “Balconies immediately communicate with the viewer in space. I don’t like overcomplicated concepts. I like making accessible art. I’m always working on several projects at the same time. Whether it’s movies, visual art, writing, I do the same thing with all three. It’s my interest in the inner thing.”

‘Inventing the norms for yourself’

“The nomination was a surprise,” says Carmen, “a real surprise. It makes you feel you’re on the right track.” And what if she won the Piket Art Prize in her category? “It would go to the bank account I have for art. It’s hard to find money for video. Video art is really harder to fund.” Musing about where she sees herself in the future she says: “It’s about inventing my own way, about what is important for me, about how I actually want to do it. It’s less about where I see myself… I want to be able to ask myself those questions. It’s about integrity, about inventing the norms for yourself.”

Photo: Eliza-Sophie Sekrève
Text: Anna Beerens