Since the times of the Franco regime, Spain is associated world wide with the imagery of traditional Andalusian values and folklore. The intrinsically Spanish flair of most of Pilar Albarracín’s work is rooted in their critique and subversion of these stereotypes and clichés. Although addressing universal issues like gender identity and violence, Albarracín focuses on their specific features in the Spanish context. Alongside she questions the construction of national identity and the exotization of the Spanish female. Using irony, camouflage and overstatement as stylistic as well as strategic elements she turns her video-performances into counter-media events which first make us laugh, and then reconsider.
