0:14 Introduction
1:57 Where are we?
2:14 Both of you are involved in the Laboratorio de Antropología Audiovisual Experimental (Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology Lab), or LAAV, and La Rara Troupe (The Strange Troupe). The two are related. Could you explain your relationship with each one?
5:55 What does each project have to do with the Department of Education at MUSAC (Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla and León, or Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León in Spanish)?
6:20 How many people are part of LAAV’s leadership?
7:07 La Rara Troupe is a working group that addresses mental health and psychosocial distress through self-representation and first-person narration in audiovisual media. The project started in 2012 in the Sta. Isabel de León Hospital for Mental Health and was there until 2013, when these workshops were moved to MUSAC’s DEAC, and a more stable group of participants came together—people with varied and intertwined interests ranging from audiovisual creation to mental health to psychosocial distress. Why did you choose this name?
9:15 La Rara Troupe inspired the creation of the Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology Laboratory (LAAV) associated with MUSAC that was created in 2016 and is linked to the Education and Cultural Action Department of MUSAC. How did you come to the name Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology Laboratory (LAAV)? 1
2:21 LAAV as a workspace was born in the context of a public institution. What type of reception and support does this approach get in the museum?
14:51 How is LAAV, which is a workspace within MUSAC, legally an Association?
17:00 Was there ever a possibility of LAAV being a cooperative?
18:35 What state will LAAV be in once it breaks off from MUSAC?
20:53 Is it possible to have a project like LAAV without institutional support to economically sustain your work?
24:03 Did 15M affect the origin of La Rara Troupe?
24:54 In LAAV’s case we’re dealing with an Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology Museum (LAAV) that’s presented as a permanent space for research and creation with communities. How do you work on creating and recreating a community of practice in a research project that, on top of producing knowledge, also results in an audiovisual project that represents the community involved?
29:32 From an analysis of your methodology, it’s very clear what differentiates extractive research and creative processes from processes that work in community to create something, then return their acquired knowledge back to the community. Working in a community requires a lot of trust, among the participants and also in you as the mediators of the process. How do you build this trust?
32:25 The protagonists of your audiovisual works are self-represented people. Methodologically speaking, is this gesture of giving them the camera so that they can be the ones narrating important?
35:27 Can you explain what traditions have shaped LAAV’s unique way of working when facing an audiovisual creation process?
40:57 Would it be correct to say that LAAV is in the intersection between anthropology, auto-ethnography, and critical pedagogy?
42:42 In our capitalistic cultural moment there’s a tendency to spectacularize events with the goal of influencing the way people think. There’s also an academic and cultural tendency toward extraction for financial gain. Considering all this, what lines shouldn’t be crossed when working on a community audiovisual production?
47:54 Following the line of the previous question, and keeping in mind your broad experience working in the audiovisual field, do you think it’s possible to influence the hegemonic dominant capitalist imaginary through images? Is it possible to put out fire with fire?
51:40 What role do you think formal and informal education play in the development and acceptance of other imaginaries and other ways of thinking, watching, and relating with other people and the world?
54:23 Do you know if your material is being used in formal and informal classrooms? Have you developed your own teaching units?
57:37 Where can we find La Rara Troupe and LAAV’s materials?
58:49 Can anyone request access to watch one of LAAV’s works by sending an email through the webpage’s contact page?
59:53 Can you contextualize the origins of the 4 projects that you’ve done as part of LAAV: Libertad, Puta Mina, Proyecto Teleclub , and Hostal España?
1:06:35 As part of LAAV you’ve launched four projects that have a very clear political dimension. Is LAAV a political project? If so, what kind of politics are we talking about?
1:10:30 Could you name some of LAAV’s milestones or accomplishments that have contributed to the pending structural and systemic change?
1:14:06 What do you think the pending institutional transformation needs in order for the public to enjoy collaborative spaces and laboratories like LAAV?
1:16:13 How do you maintain your energy and confidence in systemic change?
The Laboratory of Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology (Laav_) was founded by Belén Sola and Chus Domínguez in the early 2000s. Its origins are closely linked to the community of practices called La rara troupe, a working group that emerged in 2012 with the purpose of reflecting firsthand on mental health as something that affects society as a whole beyond diagnoses.
The audiovisual pieces produced in this Laboratory of Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology are created through a committed work with a relational logic. As they explain in their interview, the work of Laav_ raises suspicions about issues of authorship, the idea of artwork as a product, or the legitimacy of the circuits of its production and exhibition. All these concepts cease to be relevant when the work is valued for its capacity to generate affective bonds and relationships of trust and respect, or as a tool to face challenges arising from the very process of work.
The pieces from Laav_ bear witness to a type of creative and collaborative research practice that sheds light on both the possibilities (and limitations) of autoethnography and strategies to mobilize and harness the creative capacities of all individuals involved in the research and creative process. One of the objectives of Laav_ is to open up the authorized system of production, distribution, and cultural representation by introducing mobilizing perspectives and narratives into it. With the idea of a possible expanded museum, Laav_ not only opens a gateway in this institution to networks outside its framework but also proposes other forms of community engagement for those working in these types of institutions.
