Coral Pereda Serras

Sexteto (Bad Girls Don’t Like Good Girls)

Super 8 film transferred to video, HD microscopic video, surround sound

Spain has historically been pulled by opposing cultural forces: the European Union, Latin America and Northern Africa. Its complex history is intertwined with a social sense of collective guilt, trauma and memory. I part from this cultural heterogeneity to evaluate the importance of fluctuating identities: those are in eternal transition; displaced no matter where they go or stay.

I look for a voice for the narratives that were denied existence because of slippages of time; a way to visualize the non-existing image. I navigate through self-effacement and societal expectations, in order to find a way to represent everything that slips through the cracks. The work is the loss in translation, the wound leading to the loss of self. I lose my reflection. If my image disappears, there is no trace of me. I cease to exist. But my void is the loss of you. I lose the image of me/you.

I research the intersection of that void and the feeling of lack of control over political decisions. Historical scars carry out to new generations and shape affective interactions. Faces become spectral traces of shadow and light – like sheets of vellum, trying to retain the paradoxical nature of quantum light. Occasionally, expressions stubbornly stick to the surface, without fading. I hand audiences the responsibility to decide whether to trust me or not. Trust that my memory will not betray me. Trust that I’m not pretending to find a home in the snow. Trust that that blurry face ever meant something.