Video installation I Penelope is Waiting

Penelope is Waiting (2015, Spain, 7min) video installation by Pedro Valiente

PENELOPE IS WAITING

VIDEO INSTALLATION BY PEDRO VALIENTE

Penelope is Waiting (2015, Spain, 7min) video installation

"We imagine an empty space in the end of the world, which is here. Inside everyone. A long wait full of love where everything is an affirmation of life. (Maybe this is why Ulysses by James Joyce ends: yes I said I want yes.)"

SYNOPSIS Penelope is Waiting is a multiple portrait of a contemporary Penelope who is expecting Ulysses. Conceived as a transmedia project, it is a video installation for art centers, public spaces, and the internet. Main element is the simultaneous projection of four videos of 7min as a Cubist scene by Picasso.

OVERVIEW Penelope is Waiting is a multiple portrait of a contemporary Penelope. A young woman in love expecting Ulysses’ return who is locked up in an imaginary island that doesn’t exist. It is an emotional tale of staying power. Penelope is viewed in different ways –looking through a balcony, sleeping under a table, floating around columns, and making coffee. Although in this game of mirrors there is a double narrative: the open story constructed in the audience’s mind and the one suggested by the sound design.[IMDb] Penelope is Waiting is a work by filmmaker/multimedia artist Pedro Valiente, who started working on video design with Robert Wilson. It´s conceived as a technological tableau vivant with performers/artists Alfredo Miralles and Irene Gómez. An essential element is the contemporary music composed by Juan José Talavera, emotional and subtle, that creates a powerful storytelling along with the sound design including a beautiful song a capella, La Lucha, a contribution by the son jarocho band Son de Madera from Veracruz, Mexico. This video art works integrates a performance by actress Paloma Zavala, Odin Teatret collaborator, and emergent figure in Madrid; photography by Daniel Rodríguez del Pozo; still photography Juan Manuel Núñez; and a website developed by Sara Conde.

CAST Paloma Zavala CREW Director/producer: Pedro Valiente I DP: Daniel Rodríguez del Pozo I Production coordinator/AD: Alfredo Miralles I Production coordinator/editor: Irene Gómez I Music: Juan José Talavera (Spain) I Son de Madera (Mexico) I Photography: Juan Manuel Núñez I Website: Sara Conde, Pedro Valiente TECH INFO Running time: 7min I Year: 2015 I Format: HD video, color I Country: Spain I A production by Aula de las Artes, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid for Crossing Stages art project co-funded by the European Union LINKS Penelope is Waiting video installation I Penelope is Waiting website I Multiple Portraits video installation trilogy I Crossing Stages European project I Behance I IMDb I © 2015-2018 Crossing Stages UC3M I © 2015-2024 Website: Flying Fish Work I © 2015-2024 Stills/cover photo: Juan Manuel Núñez

VIDEO INSTALLATION TRILOGY

Multiple Portraits is a video installation trilogy that presents deserts --physical and mental-- where life happens. It belongs to a transmedia universe of contents including technology, sites, writing, photography, media, and visual/performing arts. The audience is free to create its own narrative experimenting through interactive storytelling. Tarahumara Project (2024) Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico I Humans in the Desert (2022) Wadi Rum, Jordan I Penelope is Waiting (2015) Madrid, Spain

EXHIBITIONS

Penelope is Waiting preview screened in Italy in Centro Artistico il Grattacielo, Livorno, Tuscany, as part of Crossing Stages, arts project co-funded by the European Union. Then the world premiere took place in ARTSevilla International Contemporary Art Encounter, Sevilla, Spain. It screened in Madrid at La Neomudéjar Museum; in the UK at Plymouth Art Weekender Festival and Arts University Plymouth; and in Jordan at In the Margin Festival by Factory/Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. ITALY 2015 June I Centro Artistico il Grattacielo, Livorno, Tuscany SPAIN 2015 August I ARTSevilla International Contemporary Art Encounter, Sevilla I 2016 December I La Neomudéjar Museum, Madrid UK 2017 May I Plymouth Art Weekender Festival I 2017 October I Arts University Plymouth JORDAN 2018 June 27-November 3 I In the Margin Festival by Factory at Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman

FROM THE ARTIST IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

"As a live performance, Penelope is Waiting is a moving portrait of mythical Penelope in four large screens displaced on a room. Spectators enter the space and decide what to see. They are free to choose since the picture is neither single nor still. Penelope is viewed in different ways –looking through a Balcony, sleeping under a Table, floating around Columns, and making Coffee. Although in this game of mirrors (screens/portraits) there is a double narrative –the open story constructed in the mind of the audience and the one suggested by the contemporary music. As a transmedia project, Penelope is Waiting is connected with other productions and platforms. It came out filming one of the seven stories of You Are Mythical feature film, which is linked to a variety of contents as Crossing Stages book, Crossing Europe documentary film, videos, interviews, photos, illustrations, essays, and media. A unique universe of platforms link intertwined projects experimenting with new forms of art and storytelling." --PV

EUROPEAN PROJECT

Penelope is Waiting is one of the productions of Crossing Stages (2013-2015), international arts project co-funded by the European Union to nurture a common culture classic myths. The essential idea was to integrate multicultural communities of artists, professionals, and students through joint practices on performance, dance, theater, music, film, technology, and visual arts. Pedro Valiente worked as director of communication developing a transmedia universe of contents including digital work (webs, social networks), media (feature film, documentary film, videos), art (performance, video art), visuals (photos, illustrations), texts (book, press, essays), and new technology (augmented reality, robotics).

Crossing Stages connects new generations with classic myths to build cultural links. This cutting-edge initiative tells the story of a group of artists who embark themselves in the multicultural adventure of searching a common identity in Europe today. This interdisciplinary initiative connects the youth with Greek mythology through performance, dance, theater, music, film, technology, and visual arts. The main segment of the program took place in 2013-2015 (workshops, lectures, publications, symposiums...), and selected activities are still in progress in different countries. I Coordinator: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain). Co-organizers: Paris Diderot University (France), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Asociación ASTA-Universidad de Beira Interior (Portugal), Artimbanco (Italy). Associates: Odin Teatret (Denmark) and Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (Spain). I LINK: Crossing Stages

TRANSMEDIA

Penelope is Waiting is connected with other productions and online platforms. It came out filming one of the seven stories of You Are Mythical, experimental documentary film produced by the same creative team. Both works are part of Crossing Stages European arts project. Crossing Stages media crew produced content under the umbrella of transmedia storytelling including the following. I Pedro Valiente worked as director of all works except for the book, website, and selected videos. LINKS You Are Mythical film (2018, 80min) received awards in two film festivals in Los Angeles I Penelope is Waiting video installation (2015, 7min) screened in Italy, Spain, UK, Jordan I Crossing Europe documentary film (2015, 30min) produced in five countries, aired on Canal 22 Mexico I Crossing Stages book (2015) including media card I Crossing Stages web series (2013-2015) including over 70 interviews and 20 videos I Crossing Stages website (2013-2015).

MULTIMEDIA

Penelope is Waiting started with the idea of having a robot to allows spectators to operate a video camera, moving through a slider, from their smartphone as part of a creative lab integrating visual arts, industrial design, robotics, and new technology. Penelope is Waiting is a video installation-multimedia-performance for art centers, public spaces, and digital networks. The main element is four simultaneous videos of 7min as a Cubist scene by Picasso. The audience decides what to see: free to choose since the picture is neither single nor still. It is an audiovisual portrait: cinematic, in motion, multiple, and transmedia. SCREEN 1 Dream I Penelope hides under a table to sleep and dream hearing the ocean and a song in her mind. SCREEN 2 Vanish I Penelope vanishes, adrift of herself, through columns that seem the mast of a boat. SCREEN 3 Life I Penelope makes coffee: calmly takes the pot out of the cabin, pours water and coffee, and waits. SCREEN 4 Look I Penelope looks out of the balcony expecting the arrival of Ulysses.

INTERDISCIPLINARY ART

TEAM Penelope is Waiting is a technological tableau vivant by Pedro Valiente coordinated by artist/producer Alfredo Miralles and actress/producer Irene Gómez. The performance by Paloma Zavala, Odin Teatret collaborator and emerging artist, is the project’s center piece. The sound design, emotional and subtle, creates a distinctive storytelling blend with music by contemporary composer Juan José Talavera, and cinematography by Daniel Rodríguez del Pozo, filmmaker and director of MasMag interactive magazine. The project is supported by still photography by Juan Manuel Núñez, visual art by Javier Chavarría, and website/multimedia by Sara Conde. Also, essays by Luz Neira, scholar, expert on classic mosaics, adjunct vice-dean of Culture and Communication at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Javier Gorostiza, multimedia artist, industrial engineer, director of Robotics Department at UC3M. I Crossing Stages European arts project: Sonsoles Herreros Laviña general manager/director Aula de las Artes, UC3M; Sergio Blanco artistic director/theater writer, director.

PHOTOGRAPHY

“Penelope is Waiting is more than a portrait of a myth. It´s more than a moment to capture. It connects our silent inner life with the terrible sensation of solitude in modern or antique times –immutable for the human being through the existence. It speaks about that intense and painful sensation waiting for the loved one. That anxiety which, why not, may expand towards creativity. Paloma Zavala performing Penelope sparks my creativity through the lens. She may project sadness, but makes me feel spiritual. Contemplating Penelope´s isolation has a lot of meaning to me as a state of mind attained in the complete absence of others. Just the two of us and the camera. The long absence was there before. She has its own inner Odyssey –fidelity, long chastity, and solitude. She is still waiting. That is what I have captured.” —JUAN MANUEL NÚÑEZ

“Juan Manuel Núñez is an airline captain who decided to change the course of his life. He studied Visual Arts and became an artist. He works on painting, sculpture, photography, and video. So, his aesthetical point of view is aerial. He looks at life from a distance that comes from the experience of life in full. His art work represents what he is. A man rooted in the earth: powerful. And an independent soul that is up in the sky: spiritual. From a calculated point of view, the architecture of his photos are subtle in composition and deep in evocative tones. To his eyes, Penelope is not waiting anymore. She has arrived to her destiny of love.” —PV

MUSIC

“The music is created after two elements which are the video installation Penelope is Waiting and the song La lucha by Son de Madera, band from Veracruz, Mexico. Both shape the tonal construction and its texture density as well as the tonal harmonic aspect. The video installation, projected on four screens, generates a contrasted tonal treatment in each screen –winds (two clarinets and accordion), strings (violin, viola, violoncello), and drums (two marimbas). In the fourth screen, the only musical part is the song performed by a female singer. The four screens create an exchange of subtle and changing counterpoints provoking in the audience an interesting game of sound stimulation linked to the space where the music happens. The modal nature of the song La Lucha, typical in popular music, is colored by instruments with different levels of harmonic tension to extract unexpected sound glitter and flare. There are two atmospheres clearly distinguished –until the song appears, it is very static; after the song, the music is intense and progressively rhythmical toward a cathartic and release ending.” — JUAN JOSÉ TALAVERA

PERFORMANCE

“One day Penelope wakes up and realizes that Ithaca is not real. She thought for years that it was the land where she belonged to. She believed that the island and herself were the same since Ulysses and Ithaca were one. She was Ulysses. That morning she found out that the mountains and the horizon were created by her mind. She discovered that the trees in the garden didn´t depend on her watch to continue existing. Now, they were different, they were other trees. The same happened with all the objects at home –they were unrecognizable. Then, she was afraid of departing from life surrounded by that illogical sensation. Fear of stop being. Do we create our own reality? Penelope enters a big room where she sees her image projected on four walls. She envisions herself waiting in Ithaca. She is aware of two realities –what she´s living and what she´s watching as spectator. She has to decide if embrace, in full heart, a new life of possibilities out of her control or return to the safety of her enclosure. Forever.” — PALOMA ZAVALA

“Paloma performs Penelope. The symbol of love and fidelity embodies a young woman in Europe today. She is the queen of an empty house –steering the sky from a balcony, hiding bellow a table to dreams of a song, dissolving from herself through columns, and making coffee. Like Penelope, she is fragile and transparent. And, like Penelope, she is a powerful woman. Making films means to me working with people. No matter how abstract is the idea or the approach to visual arts, I tend to go close to the human side of life. This forms a poetic style and inhabits the body of the story. Paloma was a breaking point shooting the feature film You Are Mythical which is a bridge between young Europeans and classic myths. After her, we all wanted to spend our lonely times building ships in a never ending wait for Ulysses. After her, we also felt mythical. As everybody knows, it's a feeling that only heroes can inspire in humans.” —PV

WEBSITE

DESIGN BY SARA CONDE I ART DIRECTOR: PEDRO VALIENTE

Crossing Stages (2013-2015), arts project co-funded by the European Union and coordinated by Aula de las Artes at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, produced three websites: Crossing Stages, Penelope is Waiting, and You Are Mythical. All coordinated by Pedro Valiente, as director of communication for Crossing Stages, they all present a minimal design and a strong development on multimedia work and transmedia storytelling connected with other art/media productions and digital platforms.

Crossing Stages, active from 2013 to 2019, is a design by alturaX where Eloy Segura, Javier Chavarría, and a multidisciplinary team work on communication, graphic design, visual arts, and education. Penelope is Waiting, active from 2015 to 2019, and You Are Mythical, active from 2017 to 2019, are both designed by Sara Conde, digital media professional and live events producer. Sara also has created Flying Fish Work, active since 2019, which was redesigned in 2022.

Penelope is Waiting website is a transmedia project connected with other artwork including a feature film, a documentary film, a book, two websites, and digital media as part of Crossing Stages European project. The video installation expands towards other productions as the audience is free to create their own narrative through further side videos, photos, illustrations, and texts. Content includes original contemporary music by Juan José Talavera, illustrations by Javier Chavarría; photography by air captain/photographer Juan Manuel Núñez; and essays by performer/director Paloma Zavala; Luz Neira, mythology/classic mosaics expert, adjunct vice-dean of UC3M Culture and Communication; and Javier Gorostiza, industrial/engineer, head of UC3M Robotics department.