For her newest film and performance project, filmmaker Edurne Rubio found inspiration in an unusual family story. Between 1960 and 1980, her father and two brothers were members of the Edelweiss speleology group. This group discovered the Ojo Guereña cave in northern of Spain, one of the largest caves in the world.
The brothers, born in the conservative town of Burgos just after the Spanish Civil War, found a way to escape the poverty and isolation of life under the Franco dictatorship. They discovered their salvation underground. Leading parallel lives, they worked in offices or factories during the week, seemingly free, but in reality oppressed, and in their free time, they discovered caves. Beneath the earth, they found the freedom that they missed above ground.
Light Years Away examines caves as living spaces. Edurne Rubio is interested in the individual and collective perception of such spaces: a minimal architecture populated by discoverers, prehistoric peoples, animals and tourists. It is moreover a mental world that is the product of our collective imagining of underground spaces and darkness.
Immerse yourself in this darkness. Try to look, without really being able to see. Listen and engage your imagination.
ES spoken / EN subtitles
Son: David Elchardus
Image: Alvaro Alonso
Editing: Jan de Coster and Edurne Rubio
Dramaturgy assistant: María Jerez
Co-produce by: Beursschouwburg, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek & Kunstencetrum BUDA
Supported by: Netwerk, centrum voor hedendaagse kunst & Grupo de Espeleología Edelweiss
Edurne Rubio’s research has always been related to the individual or collective perception of time and space. Interested in contexts that make perception a given variable and mutant, forgotten or archived, she seeks to associate or contrast ways of perceiving reality with the aim of creating a second composed reality. Her work is close to documentary and anthropology, using interviews, archive images and research on oral communication.
