Born in 1995 in Sagunto (Spain)
Lives and works in Madrid (Spain)

Mar Reykjavik’s practice revolves around the image as living-space. In her test videos, or “experimental films”, the artist examines the narrative power of images. Sometimes mixing personal archive material with specially shot footage, she intertwines fiction and reality, leaving room only for her own experience and the visitors’. The video edit, which is perceived as a plastic element, becomes the equivalent of the painter’s brush: it demarcates, spreads and defines its material in order to craft an original narrative space.

La Voltereta, on show at Young International Artists, stems from the motion of the somersault. Devised like a play in three acts, it lets us experience the take-off, the rotation and the almost inevitable landing. The take-off is straight, clean and filmed digitally, while the landing is filmed in 8 mm: the picture is grainy and unstable yet vibrant. Finally, the rotation has a mystical, almost ceremonial quality. The images are presented back to back, overlaying, contrasting with and complementing one other to make the body – the central element, for the artist – both the recipient and the subject of the work.