2011
“!Perla_Miseria!” is the result of a pun: In Italian “Per la miseria!” is a common swear word, meaning “what a bummer!”. When put together, an ironical contrasting pair is formed, which is also understandable in English: Pearl-Misery. Further associations point towards thematic complexes that the artists deal with: Beauty–ugliness, wealth–adversity are always coupled with social and political processes and bodily representations.
In this context, Tina Bara and Alba D'Urbano thematise various topics, that deal with the constitution and the media's handling of (female) bodies. In the exhibited works, connections can be made with sports, politics, discipline, control and surveillance, but also to self-determined oppositional strategies of game.
The images and videos in contrast to the visuality of mass media, form a type of counterpoint by working with shifting “surfaces” and actions in regards to the portrayed. Thus the artistic duo combine documentary strategies with performative image compositions, narrative with conceptual elements, to which textual and auditive layers are added, that hint towards specific biographical and social contexts. In connection with each theme, the individual is placed into a relationship between remembrance and the present, as well as the utopian moments of associations that it entails, via general contemporary questions in a biographical context.