Fancams, 2022

Two simultaneous FHD video installation version and single-channel version, color, sound, 8'

The way we produce images and videos of ourselves to later be posted online, have generated new ways of moving and performing in front of the camera. In fact, the new generations are used to produce and post videos on social platforms to express themselves and interact. In this project I dive on a very specific community of young people who meet in the Azca area (Madrid), on weekends, to rehearse choreographies that will later be recorded and shared on their social media profiles. Their dance routines share details in common: their dance moves are aimed towards one point of view, as they’re designed to be recorded using the framing of a smartphone. Under these conditions, young people perform by learning popular choreographies, thus creating not only a personal body language, but also new groups, virtual and physical ones. It is a very diverse and open community (in terms of gender, ethnicity, or age), understood as a safe space for self-expression and where to develop their identities without any taboos. Through dance and fashion, they express themselves and support each other to dance to K-pop, hip hop and reggaeton. Azca and social media are their fictional scenarios, where they can present themselves as they truly are.

This peculiar urban environment near the Nuevos Ministerios station is made up of modern office buildings, whose glass can be used as mirrors, and thus rehearse in this makeshift urban dance studio. For about seven months, I would explore this place on Friday afternoons to learn what they were doing and get to know them.

I chose to film in vertical format to emulate the type of video that can be captured with smartphones, and in slow motion, to reflect far from the fast-paced consumption of online media. And this is how I found and understood this special subculture, that lives between the urban environment and the digital world, and where the goal is not just to group and dance, but to curate a presence on the Internet as a community.

Written, directed and produced by Ana Esteve Reig
All rights reserved © Ana Esteve Reig