Texto
2021
Video essay, 3’30’’, color, sound
Texto is a single-channel audiovisual essay that addresses the relationship between text, the social representation of women and the role of mass media across both traditional and digital registers. Applying a critical feminist framework, the piece examines the link between text and meaning, questioning how textual and hypertextual constructions are shaping the cultural identity of women.
Through a layered assemblage of archival materials, original recordings and digital landscapes, Texto reflects on moments where the print media of earlier eras and the accelerated image and text flow of contemporary media intersect in a patriarchal representation of women.
By juxtaposing these layers, the work proposes that these mechanisms of representation have not fundamentally changed in time - rather, they have intensified across digital platforms via algorithmic acceleration, anonymous contributions and the absence of formal editorial standards.
The work situates text not as a neutral carrier of meaning but as a site of power, where dominant discourses are reproduced and potentially subverted. Central to the essay's narration is the role of text itself both as medium and subject. Text does not merely describe but actively constructs particular realities.
Through the interplay of on-screen typography and multilingual voiceover, Texto further draws attention to the performative and normative dimensions of language. The voiceover weaves together quoted passages from Vilém Flusser, Helen Hester and Eugenio Tisselli, constructing a theoretical framework through which the visual layer of the essay can be read and interpreted.
With texts from:
Xenofeminism by Helen Hester
Communicology by Vilém Flusser
Sobre la poesía maquinal, o escrita por máquinas by Eugenio Tisselli
Images above: Video stills from Texto.
Images above: Texto displayed at 'Podvratny striptiz' group show, Pistori Palace, Bratislava, Slovakia, June 2021.