Narrativas del siendo. Videoarte español en el cuestionamiento del sexo, género y sexualidad normativas

Abstract

Through the analysis of Spanish video art’ works from the last two decades, I argue the ability of this audiovisual medium to question the normative construction of sex, gender and sexuality, and to establish representations favorable to subvert them. Firstly, I describe the emergence of symbolic, cultural and self-declared counter-discourses as one of the features of LGBTIQA+ activism. Based on the theory of the New Social Movements, I consider the cultural productions of queer activisms as emancipatory micro-politics. Then, I argue the ability of video art to promote and disseminate critical and subversive messages. Due to the feminist tradition, Spanish video art is established as a prolific tool to reflect about bodies, identities and subjectivities that put the sex-gender Norm in crisis. In within the fruitful conversation between queer activisms and Spanish video art, I focus on three specific trends. First, video art that denaturalizes the binary and heterosexual gender norm, especially questioning the categories of femininity and masculinity. Second, works which reflect the possibility of political and strategic identities, through techniques such as framings, stage space, or narrative strategies. Finally, video art which questions the sexual practices’ normativity, through one of the most prolific corpus of queer video art: post-porn. I conclude by broadening the definition of expanded-video to add the political meanings of LGBTIQA+ resistance and emancipation.