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![Smiles and Pay per view Channel]( "Smiles and Pay per view Channel")
infoCarmen’s videos and installations are about looking outside and looking within, a mode of introspection. Creating these building facades allows her to talk about voyeurs, spectators and what it feels to be looked at. Using Spanish elements, bright colours and humorous characters helps her create a unique aesthetic that invites the viewer in to learn more.
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![María Pilar Antonia Josefa Santa Iranzo Barceló señora de Enrique Julio Roca Rodríguez doctor en arquitectura]( "María Pilar Antonia Josefa Santa Iranzo Barceló señora de Enrique Julio Roca Rodríguez doctor en arquitectura")
infoMixed-media piece part of A less obedient version of Alexa
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![J’ai un caractère de merde et je l’assume]( "J’ai un caractère de merde et je l’assume")
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![Back in Print]( "Back in Print")
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![Gossip Quarters]( "Gossip Quarters")
infoAn installation involving room dividers that show paintings based on AI generated images of the prompt ‘Gossip’. She investigates human behavior and our tendency to use ‘social make-up’ to present ourselves online.
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![Gossip Quarters]( "Gossip Quarters")
infoAn installation involving room dividers that show paintings based on AI generated images of the prompt ‘Gossip’. She investigates human behavior and our tendency to use ‘social make-up’ to present ourselves online.
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![Apatia y Devocion]( "Apatia y Devocion")
infoVideo installation shown at Heden Gallerie
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![A less obedient version of Alexa]( "A less obedient version of Alexa")
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![Remedios Enojada]( "Remedios Enojada")
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![Apatia y Devocion]( "Apatia y Devocion")
infoApatia y Devocion (2022), is a 20min film where the characters explore the meaning of getting to know themselves. A surreal but strangely familiar world. This world allows us to question the relation between both our inner and outer experiences. As our daily lives increasingly merge with our online presence, realities seem to blur. How do they influence each other, and how do they connect? The short film draws parallels between silent cinema and the editing style, attention span and algorithms of TikTok. The characters delve into relationship and self-improvement stereotypes. A girl trying to selfishly and spiritually get over a breakup, her loving friend (always by her side) helps her out with a lot of judgement.
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![Tan Lines from a Spiritual Retweet]( "Tan Lines from a Spiritual Retweet")
infoFind the exhibition space of 1646 transforming again. For ‘Tan lines from a Spiritual retweet’, Carmen Roca Igual welcomes you into a surreal but strangely familiar world. This world allows us to question the relation between both our inner and outer experiences. As our daily lives increasingly merge with our online presence, realities seem to blur. How do they influence each other, and how do they connect? “As a new world opened up to make us all actors of our appearances, we blend with our technologies. Face filters, deep fakes and plastic surgery can all bring us closer to what we want to be” The possibility to continuously reinvent ourselves is ever-present in a digitalised world. With two new video installations that will be on view in the exhibition, Carmen explores the meaning of getting to know oneself by transforming and trying on different masks and personas. Grandma’s taking a selfie, raver kids hanging up their parents’ laundry, women in labor, and actresses playing the role of being watched… Through her work, Carmen looks at cultural phenomena and myths to touch on identity, reality, storytelling, gossip and representation. Inviting us to embrace change as an opportunity to explore ourselves.
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![Tan Lines from a Spiritual Retweet]( "Tan Lines from a Spiritual Retweet")
infoFind the exhibition space of 1646 transforming again. For ‘Tan lines from a Spiritual retweet’, Carmen Roca Igual welcomes you into a surreal but strangely familiar world. This world allows us to question the relation between both our inner and outer experiences. As our daily lives increasingly merge with our online presence, realities seem to blur. How do they influence each other, and how do they connect? “As a new world opened up to make us all actors of our appearances, we blend with our technologies. Face filters, deep fakes and plastic surgery can all bring us closer to what we want to be” The possibility to continuously reinvent ourselves is ever-present in a digitalised world. With two new video installations that will be on view in the exhibition, Carmen explores the meaning of getting to know oneself by transforming and trying on different masks and personas. Grandma’s taking a selfie, raver kids hanging up their parents’ laundry, women in labor, and actresses playing the role of being watched… Through her work, Carmen looks at cultural phenomena and myths to touch on identity, reality, storytelling, gossip and representation. Inviting us to embrace change as an opportunity to explore ourselves.
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![K girls hanging up their parents laundry]( "K girls hanging up their parents laundry")
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![Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet]( "Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet")
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![Novel at Crying until Laughing]( "Novel at Crying until Laughing")
infoFor the occasion of the exhibition Crying until laughing/Sírás nevetésig, Trafó Gallery invited 1646 to curate a group exhibition in Budapest! The project showcases artists connected to 1646’s program, focusing on works that share similar artistic strategies, such as fictioning, complicating and the use of humour.
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![Simerella]( "Simerella")
infoSimerella is a desperate housewife, stuck in the decisions she made years ago. She paints her windows and takes off her muddy, heavy shoes. Made in an art residency at the Jovan Popovic gallery in Opovo, Serbia, 2022.
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![Simerella]( "Simerella")
infoSimerella is a desperate housewife, stuck in the decisions she made years ago. She paints her windows and takes off her muddy, heavy shoes. Made in an art residency at the Jovan Popovic gallery in Opovo, Serbia, 2022.
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![Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet]( "Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet")
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![Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet]( "Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet")
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![Novel at Home Cinema]( "Novel at Home Cinema")
infoPhoto by Diego Diez
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![Clean Talk]( "Clean Talk")
infoStills from Clean Talk, 9min movie, it's a conversation piece on gossip being the precursor of language played by fictional and non-fictional women. Femininity, the sex, the chatter, the costumes, the age, the tension, the taking advantage of, the money, the magic, the spiritual, the humor, and the conversation piece are all subjects of research for the Gossip Girls series. This series of short videos is part of an ongoing project, written, directed and produced by me, 2021-2022.
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![Novel]( "Novel")
infoNovel (Unlocked-Reconnected) at gallery 1646, June 2020. Photo by Jhoeko
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![Novel]( "Novel")
infoNovel (Unlocked-Reconnected) at gallery 1646, June 2020. Photo by Jhoeko
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![Novel]( "Novel")
infoStills from Novel, 20min movie, a dramatic musing on the external and internal masks we choose to put on, an introspective journey, in a quarantine, accompanied by phones and tablets. Characters question their own self-image out loud as they talk to and even gossip with their selfies and other inanimate objects. Directed, shot and produced by me, 2019-2020.
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![Novel]( "Novel")
infoVideo Installation Novel, Sept 2020 Photo documentation by Charlotte Brand
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![Digital Flowers]( "Digital Flowers")
info“Digital Flowers” part of Video Installation Novel, Sept 2020. Photo by Milutin Markovic
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![Novel]( "Novel")
infoNovel screening and lecture at MU Self Design Academy in Eindhoven, October 2020
Websites
Personal website
www.carmenrocaigual.comSocial media
Member of Artists’ Initiative/Collective/Incubator
Touchy Studios
Curriculum vitae
Education
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2016 - 2020Interactive Media Design Den Haag, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten diploma
exhibitions
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2024Prospects Art Rotterdam Van Nelle Fabriek Rotterdam, Netherlands Carmen Roca Igual (1998) captures everyday contemporary life in her work. At the academy she was told to take a stand and give her artworks a political dimension. But she prefers not to do this: “That is because I have personally learned more from experiences and anecdotes than from opinions.” That said, the work Roca Igual is presenting at Prospects does provoke a reaction. The audience is confronted with a model of a building façade. A woman behind a French balcony on the first floor is making a phone call and appears to be distracted by the (imaginary) sounds made by the audience. In Spanish, she assertively orders them to keep the noise down. The calling woman in the video recording is the artist’s grandmother who, like her mother, often makes an appearance in her work. It sometimes appears as if her grandmother is able to predict the future. Roca Igual explains that in the Spanish village she grew up in, older women were always standing in their doorways or in front of their open windows to spy and comment on what was happening in the streets. As most of these events had already taken place many times before, they often already knew what was going to happen in advance. Roca Igual compares the older women’s presumed predictive gifts to screens offering views of alternative worlds: “Online filters and masks may reveal something about who we are or could be — like getting a glimpse of a different version of yourself in a parallel world.” www.mondriaanfonds.nl/en/profile/carmen-roca-igual/ Group
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2023Art to make you travel Heden Gallery The Hague, Netherlands Experience a contemporary road trip: watch in our gallery the video ‘Apatia y Devocion’ by Carmen Roca Igual, a lens-based artist, researching human behavior and the social make-up we apply in relation to new media. Read more about this work on our website via the link in bio. Group
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2023A less obedient version of Alexa Trixie The Hague, Netherlands Inviting us to step into a role of a character in her fictional narrative, Carmen de la Roca creates a familiar situation where everything assembles everyday life. The exhibition transforms the gallery into a set design, mimicking a public space that holds the capacity to embrace intimate acts such as stripping the body or facing one’s own perception of themselves, simultaneously being a meeting point for strangers in front of mirrors. ‘A Less Obedient Version Of Alexa’ speaks about an all-seeing and all-knowing entity, viewing her connection to Google as a father-daughter relationship. Overhearing her thoughts and getting a brief insight into the life of a stranger, one tends to wonder how role models as cultural translators affect our personal feelings. What is the impact of dominant ideologies on internal thoughts, sense of self-value and ability to trust oneself? Curated by Elena Apostolovski Solo
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2023Id Expired Sign Groningen What versions are there of someone? What you are is a mix of identities. Digital alter egos alternate with real ones. How are they formed and used? Context, environment, opinions, orientation influence the impression; even masks and face filters express and show other layers of one’s self. sign2.nl/events/id-expired-2/ Group
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2023Crying until Laughing Trafo Gallery Budapest, Hungary For the exhibition Crying until Laughing / Sírás nevetésig, Trafó Gallery invited 1646 to curate a group exhibition in Budapest! The project showcases the work of artists from the 1646 program, with an eye for works that share similar artistic strategies, such as the use of fiction, complexity and humour. Crying until laughing/Sírás nevetésig, brings together artists for whom humour is a catalyst, in order to move beyond normative constraints and our perceived reality. These artists work with subjects ranging from day-to-day affairs to geopolitics; from the embarrassment of blushing to corporate interest in our bodies and well-being; from the overwhelming pressure of social media to the burden of what it means to be "successful" in life. They approach complex issues that affect many people. By using humour, these artists regain a sense of control. They use humour not only as a coping mechanism but also as a means of connection with the viewer. In a playful way, they seduce us to enter a space in our head where familiar everyday references fade, become exposed or even become surreal. As we reorient ourselves, humour intoxicates our way of seeing. We are overwhelmed, and suddenly open to new possibilities. Crying until laughing/Sírás nevetésig, with artists: Afra Eisma, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Shana Moulton, Carmen Roca Igual, Ghita Skali, Marnix van Uum. The events program takes place in January, with work by Kasia Fudakowski and Roee Rosen, among others. 1646.nl/nl/programma/crying-until-laughing-siras-nevetesig/ Group
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2022Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet 1646 The Hague, Netherlands The exhibition space of 1646 transformed again. For Tan lines from a Spiritual Retweet, Carmen Roca Igual welcomed us into a surreal but strangely familiar world. This world allowed us to question the relation between both our inner and outer experiences. As our daily lives increasingly merge with our online presence, realities seem to blur. How do they influence each other, and how do they connect? “As a new world opened up to make us all actors of our appearances, we blend with our technologies. Face filters, deep fakes and plastic surgery can all bring us closer to what we want to be” The possibility to continuously reinvent ourselves is ever-present in a digitalised world. With two new video installations that will be on view in the exhibition, Carmen explores the meaning of getting to know oneself by transforming and trying on different masks and personas. Grandma’s taking a selfie, raver kids hanging up their parents’ laundry, women in labor, and actresses playing the role of being watched… Through her work, Carmen looks at cultural phenomena and myths to touch on identity, reality, storytelling, gossip and representation. Inviting us to embrace change as an opportunity to explore ourselves. 1646.nl/program/tan-lines-from-a-spiritual-retweet/ Solo
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2021Adam Centko & Carmen Roca Igual ALL MY FRIENDS ARE PHONES AND TABLETS SCREENING AND TALK IN RIJEKA, HR Filmodrammatica Korzo 28, 51000, Rijeka, HR Rijeka, Croatia All my friends are phones and tablets presents two exciting video works by recent graduates from the Interactive Media Design department, at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art, Carmen Roca Igual and Adam Centko, followed by a talk. The works reflect on technology, loneliness and the role of digital environments in everyday life. A new reality emerges from our relationship to the digital world and the way we use representations of ourselves in it. 1646.nl/program/all-my-friends-are-phones-and-tablets/ Group
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2021Dutch Design Week De Caai Eindhoven, Netherlands Expo during Dutch Design Week 2021 from October 16-24 and longer @Milkfactory – The Caai (Campina-terrain) Eindhoven. 2021.manifestations.nl/en/ Group
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2020Adam Centko & Carmen Roca Igual 1646 STREET VIEW CINEMA 1646 the Hague, Netherlands 1646 transformed its big display window into a temporary Street View Cinema! We selected two exciting video works by graduating students from KABK Interactive Media Design department. The two works reflect on technology, loneliness and the role of digital environments in times of the current pandemic. A new reality emerges from our relationship to the digital world and the way we use representations of ourselves in it. 1646.nl/program/1646-street-view-cinema/ Duo
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2020Carmen Roca Igual UNLOCKED/RECONNECTED 1646 the Hague, Netherlands Unlocked/Reconnected is an initiative that brings together a wide range of ‘houses of art’: museums, exhibition spaces, galleries, artist run initiatives and corporate collections — with around 200 participants in total. The project is driven by solidarity and aims to celebrate the reopening of art spaces across the board. The idea of Unlocked/Reconnected is to collectively reflect on notions of ‘home’. After months of homebound self-isolation at the behest of worldwide lockdown measurements, the project intends to collectively welcome visitors back in our ‘homes’. Our contribution to Unlocked/Reconnected is Carmen Roca Igual’s video Novel, which was also on view during the 1646 Street View Cinema. The work offers a poignant reflection on ‘home life’ in times of the virus. With Novel, 1646 participated in Unlocked/Reconnected, celebrating the reopening. 1646.nl/program/unlocked-reconnected/ Solo
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2020DDW Dutch Design Week Eindhoven, Netherlands "Novel" flickers between the masks we wear in society. The girls go through an introspective journey in a quarantine, accompanied by their phones and devices. They use frontal cameras and gossip to find themselves and augment their reality. ddw.nl/en/programme/2828/novel Group
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2020The Self Design Academy Share programme MU Hybrid Art House Eindhoven, Netherlands Thursday 24 September, Zwermers presents Pan ~ // Catwalk: a performance project about humanity’s multicoloured nature. While we can attend this live in MU, visitors of Istanbul Fringe Festival can watch with us via a live stream. After the performance we will screen the movie Novel by Carmen Roca Igual, followed by a short discussion by the maker. mu.nl/en/about/agenda/live-performance-pan-catwalk-by-zwermers-film-screening-novel-by-carmen-roca-igual Group
Projects
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2024
Smiles and Pay per view channel Material and technique: (Wood, paint, video)
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2023
A less obedient version of Alexa The Hague, Netherlands carmenrocaigual.com/A-less-obedient-version-of-Alexa The exhibition space worked as an audio-installation. In the middle changing room was a dialogue between two girls trying on clothes. Viewers could come closer to overhear their private yet relatable conversation.
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2022
Simerella Opovo, Serbia and Montenegro carmenrocaigual.com/simerella Simerella is a desperate housewife, stuck in the decisions she made years ago. She paints her windows and takes off her muddy, heavy shoes. Made in an art residency at the Jovan Popovic gallery in Opovo, Serbia, 2022.
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2022
Apatia y Devocion Spain carmenrocaigual.com/apatia-y-devocion Apatia y Devocion (2022), is a 20min film where the characters explore the meaning of getting to know themselves. A surreal but strangely familiar world. This world allows us to question the relation between both our inner and outer experiences. As our daily lives increasingly merge with our online presence, realities seem to blur. How do they influence each other, and how do they connect? The short film draws parallels between silent cinema and the editing style, attention span and algorithms of TikTok. The characters delve into relationship and self-improvement stereotypes. A girl trying to selfishly and spiritually get over a breakup, her loving friend (always by her side) helps her out with a lot of judgement.
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2021
Clean Talk Spain carmenrocaigual.com/clean-talk Clean Talk (2021), is a 9min video that mixes the past with the future, retelling old stories from a contemporary point of view. The women are being filmed as a favour to their cousin who directs the scenes. The cousin makes them clean and gossip for hours while carefully orchestrating a fictional piece that often breaks the fourth wall as the women break out of character to talk to and disagree with their cousin. The setup and framing of the characters are inspired by the Conversation Pieces of the 18th Century but with a modern twist.
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2020
Novel Spain carmenrocaigual.com/novel It’s a 20min face filter film where the characters question their own self-image out loud as they talk to and even gossip with selfies and inanimate objects. Reflecting on technology, loneliness, and the role of digital environments in everyday life. The film was part of my graduation project at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and won the Department prize of Interactive Media Design. It was also nominated for the Young Talent award, the #Am Latino Film Festival and the Lift off Sessions Film Festival in the United Kingdom.
International exchanges/Residencies
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2022Opovo, Serbia and Montenegro Art colony Opovo 2022: Roda, realization date 7-21. August Eleven authors from ten countries will participate in the residential program which Gallery Jovan Popović organizes and implements in cooperation with artist Igor Šiler. This project involves staying in Opovo, getting to know our local community and customs and realization of the collective exhibition. The theme of this year's program is Roda. The works created in this colony will enrich the fund of the gallery, and provide artists space for work and development of ideas in order to strengthen the cultural and tourist offer of our place. Ceremonial closing of the colony and opening of the collective exhibition: August 20 at 7 p.m The project was financially supported by the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities. onbopovo.org.rs/
Commissions
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2023Gossip Quarters Groningen, Netherlands An installation involving room dividers that show paintings based on AI generated images of the prompt ‘Gossip’. She investigates human behavior and our tendency to use ‘social make-up’ to present ourselves online. finished
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2022Apatia y Devocion 1646 The Hague, Netherlands Apatia y Devocion (2022), is a 20min film where the characters explore the meaning of getting to know themselves. A surreal but strangely familiar world. This world allows us to question the relation between both our inner and outer experiences. As our daily lives increasingly merge with our online presence, realities seem to blur. How do they influence each other, and how do they connect? The short film draws parallels between silent cinema and the editing style, attention span and algorithms of TikTok. The characters delve into relationship and self-improvement stereotypes. A girl trying to selfishly and spiritually get over a breakup, her loving friend (always by her side) helps her out with a lot of judgement. 1646.nl/program/tan-lines-from-a-spiritual-retweet/ finished
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2022Remedios Enojada 1646 Netherlands Material and technique: (Metal, wood, paint, video) finished
reviews
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2022In search of spirituality in TikTok format – Carmen Roca Igual at 1646 Magazine Eline van der Haak Netherlands www.metropolism.com/nl/reviews/47834_op_zoek_naar_spiritualiteit_in_tiktok_format_carmen_roca_igual_bij_1646 Staring out on a mountain in the distance quickly becomes boring, as it turns out when Carmen Roca Igual goes out with her mother. Soon they no longer stare into the distance, but at their phone screens. Spirituality and social media forge an ambiguous connection in the artist's first solo exhibition; are the two simply mutually exclusive, or do they actually attract each other in certain ways?
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2022Spanish spheres in 1646 Magazine Bob van der Sterre Netherlands jegensentevens.nl/2022/10/spaanse-sferen-in-1646/ Carmen Roca Igual created a Spanish paradise in 1646. In search of spirituality with modern means, she holds up a comic mirror to us.
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2020KABK: ART Graduates Conceptual wonderlands and the digitalised-self. Magazine Rose Holmshaw The Hague, Netherlands www.glamcult.com/articles/kabk-art/ It’s definitely time for a KABK graduation again… For the day, we also were graced by meeting the faces of the school’s several Art degrees. This crafty bunch had come armed with film, photography and installation delights. Each chat brought us into conceptual wonderlands as it became clear that a critical eye and a delicate hand produces greatness. We saw performances, portraits, and a definite theme of the digitalised-self. It was a pleasure to experience self-expression and contemporary reflection, so we couldn’t resist sharing with y’all too. Enjoy!
Awards and grants
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2022Artist Start Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam (Mondriaan Fonds) Netherlands
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2020Interactive Media Design Department Award Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag The Hague, Netherlands Interactive Media Design Department Award
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2020Young Talent Award ING Young Talent award eindhoven, Netherlands
Secondary art-related activities
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2018 - 2025Assistant Director/Film Production for Amalia Ulman for her feature movie and other ongoing projects On-going