ITZIAR BARRIO, THE PERILS OF OBEDIENCE (PREMIERE) at PARTICIPANT INC, NYC
March 6 – April 17, 2022 
With an archival exhibition and web project on theperilsofobediencearchive.art
Curated by Elizaveta Alexandrovna Shneyderman 

And Itziar Barrio at HOME, As part of an organizational collaboration with homehomehomehome.com 
291 Grand Street NYC
March 6-31, 2022 

PARTICIPANT INC presents the concluding iteration of a twelve-year, multi-site project, Itziar Barrio, THE PERILS OF OBEDIENCE (PREMIERE). THE PERILS OF OBEDIENCE (TPO) merges different media to generate a movie in real time, participating in a larger debate about labor conditions and subjectivity. As a whole, the project seeks to query the limits of film, performance, sculpture, and installation by deploying dissent as a tool to rewrite dominant narratives and open future horizons. Throughout the history of TPO, which has unfolded in Bilbao, New York City, Bogotá, and Rome, performers worked with directors to develop their characters. In each location, over time, this process was witnessed by audiences and recorded, to be edited later. As noted by art critic Ángela Molina, Barrio seeks to produce “an art of feeling, of bonds and symptoms that operate within a social order marked by class division and the imperative of capital.”

The project places a cast of performers within scripted and non-scripted parameters, using material from iconic movie scripts, narratives from their own lives, manifestos, and historical and recent events. While being filmed, four performers are directed towards the completion of a scene. Situated in a conflict, they will reveal their inner desires and the power dynamics behind the group. The project blurs the line between the subject and the character, the fiction and non-fiction. The audience witnesses at the same time the performance and the making of a movie.