re-cuerda
Gudrita Lape and Thai Tai Pham
Cabanyal-Canyamelar
Valencia, Spain
Re-cuerda is a performance series at the weekly markets (mercadillos) of Valencia, Spain. The mercadillos in Valencia are very well known. Almost every social class feels drawn to it. Whether household appliances, second-hand clothes, underwear or sunglasses. For young people, students, the middle class, tourists, or pensioners, for everyone there could already be a new favourite item waiting for its new owner at the Mercadillo. The duo, consisting of Gudrita Lape (Iceland) and Thai Tai Pham (Germany), observes the mechanisms of consumer society and what they leave behind, obviously plastic waste and much more.
Derived from the Spanish „cuerda“ (rope, cord), the duo traverse the weekly markets in neighbourhoods such as Cabañal, Benimaclet and Ruzafa with a clothesline and clothes pegs between them, collecting items such as rubbish and leftovers from the markets to show off in turn. „Barato, barato! guapa, guapa! oferta, oferta!“ shouts Thai Tai Pham among the crowds. A mobile market stall with objects that obviously do not arouse the interest of passers-by, but do arouse respect.
Following the weekly 2-3 hour observation and collection of objects from the market, the objects are combined into new contexts, which can include installations, videos or interviews of passers-by. In the long term, Re-cuerda wants to integrate a sustainable intervention in the public space of the weekly markets and present a reflection on consumption, the relationship between supply and demand, for the broad Valencia crowd.