(A display of) Wandering stories
Video installation by José Vicente Martín Martínez
Sound Studies Gallery, 3-47 Arts Building
October 1 – 4, 2024

(A display of) Wandering stories shows people slowly crossing in front of the camera lens in crowded cities. The rhythm and isolation make the viewer focus on a subject who passes before him, absorbed in his world. The viewer is forced, in some way, to wonder about this anonymous subject who appears in front of him for a second and then he/she vanishes. About your existence, concerns and desires, about your circumstances. As flâneurs, we look through the windows of trams and buses and see life go by with other protagonists. With the gaze of the stranger, curious about the everyday life of others, we imagine the stories that unfold as we pass. Thus, Wandering stories tries to capture the mix between strangeness and empathy that these anonymous lives cause us that appear fleetingly, entering the frame, becoming present for a moment to immediately fade away. In that brief period, we sense a life, which, deep down, is the one that could (or can) be ours.

(A display of) Wandering stories includes sequences recorded in Europe (Edinburgh, Stockholm, Helsinki, Nantes, Prague, Oxford and Vienna) and Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg) during different trips.

• Gallery