Screening and Conversation with Itziar Barrio
ROBOTA MML
Salt Galata
May 29, 2024 19.00
Still from Itziar Barrio’s ROBOTA MML (2019-ongoing)
Courtesy the artist
Courtesy the artist
Auditorium
ROBOTA MML (2023)
Director: Itziar Barrio
Performers: Ainhoa Hernández, Cuqui Jerez, Anto Rodríguez, Mina Serrano, Cary Rosa Varona, Javier Vaquero Ollero, La Dalia Negra collective
61 minutes
Spanish; Turkish and English subtitles
The longer version of Itziar Barrio’s ROBOTA MML, presented as part of the exhibition Let Us Go Back to the Beginning, will be screened in the Auditorium at Salt Galata at scheduled times. The screening on Wednesday, May 29 at 19.00 will be followed by a conversation between the artist and the exhibition’s programmer Fatma Çolakoğlu.
The term robot derives from the Czech word robota, meaning “forced labor,” which was coined in Karel Čapek’s science-fiction play R.U.R. (1920). Drawing on the ideas introduced in the play, ROBOTA MML engages with current issues around labor and production. The artist repositions R.U.R.’s characters in a contemporary context where identity and gender are undefined. Replacing the factory setting with an underground nightclub, she transforms the story into an allegory for bodily desires. The work explores the creative and destructive potentials of human-machine interactions and the underlying forces of power, domination, and subversion. The film’s visual references include Théodore Géricault’s painting Le Radeau de la Méduse [The Raft of the Medusa] (1818-1819) and Luis Buñuel’s El ángel exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (1962).
This free-admission program is open to everyone. The conversation will be held in English.
Itziar Barrio is an interdisciplinary artist producing long-term research-based projects that involve different agents and collaborators. Her survey exhibition BY ALL MEANS, curated by Johanna Burton, was held at Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao) in 2018, and her monograph was published by SKIRA in 2023. Barrio’s work has been presented internationally at the 14th Shanghai Biennale, Onassis ONX (New York), MACRO (Rome), PARTICIPANT INC (New York), MACBA (Barcelona), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Museos del Banco de la República (Bogotá), and the Havana Biennial. She is a member of the New Museum’s incubator, NEW INC, and has received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Spanish Academy in Rome, among others. Her work has been featured in various publications, including Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, ART PAPERS, and BOMB. Barrio has recently been awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
In accordance with Article 7 of Law No. 5224 amended on 18.01.2019, films that have not been assessed and classified by the General Directorate of Cinema, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Republic of Turkey, can only be screened under the classification of 18+ at festivals, special screenings or similar culture and arts events.
ROBOTA MML (2023)
Director: Itziar Barrio
Performers: Ainhoa Hernández, Cuqui Jerez, Anto Rodríguez, Mina Serrano, Cary Rosa Varona, Javier Vaquero Ollero, La Dalia Negra collective
61 minutes
Spanish; Turkish and English subtitles
The longer version of Itziar Barrio’s ROBOTA MML, presented as part of the exhibition Let Us Go Back to the Beginning, will be screened in the Auditorium at Salt Galata at scheduled times. The screening on Wednesday, May 29 at 19.00 will be followed by a conversation between the artist and the exhibition’s programmer Fatma Çolakoğlu.
The term robot derives from the Czech word robota, meaning “forced labor,” which was coined in Karel Čapek’s science-fiction play R.U.R. (1920). Drawing on the ideas introduced in the play, ROBOTA MML engages with current issues around labor and production. The artist repositions R.U.R.’s characters in a contemporary context where identity and gender are undefined. Replacing the factory setting with an underground nightclub, she transforms the story into an allegory for bodily desires. The work explores the creative and destructive potentials of human-machine interactions and the underlying forces of power, domination, and subversion. The film’s visual references include Théodore Géricault’s painting Le Radeau de la Méduse [The Raft of the Medusa] (1818-1819) and Luis Buñuel’s El ángel exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (1962).
This free-admission program is open to everyone. The conversation will be held in English.
Itziar Barrio is an interdisciplinary artist producing long-term research-based projects that involve different agents and collaborators. Her survey exhibition BY ALL MEANS, curated by Johanna Burton, was held at Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao) in 2018, and her monograph was published by SKIRA in 2023. Barrio’s work has been presented internationally at the 14th Shanghai Biennale, Onassis ONX (New York), MACRO (Rome), PARTICIPANT INC (New York), MACBA (Barcelona), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Museos del Banco de la República (Bogotá), and the Havana Biennial. She is a member of the New Museum’s incubator, NEW INC, and has received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Spanish Academy in Rome, among others. Her work has been featured in various publications, including Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, ART PAPERS, and BOMB. Barrio has recently been awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
