ISABEL ROCAMORA BIOGRAPHY

Isabel Rocamora is a filmmaker with a strong background in choreography who makes screen-based work for installation, cinema and art broadcast. Her work investigates the experience of being human. It is interested in perception, changing states of consciousness and the relationship between locational identity, the physical and the emotional.

Originally from Spain, with a British background, Isabel arrived in the U.K in 1986. Graduating from Bristol University (drama, film and french literature, First Class) she then trained in physical theatre (Jacques Lecoq, Paris), butoh dance (Masaki Iwana) and aerial skills (Circus Space). In recent years she has studied digital cinematography at Maine Workshops, U.S.

As co-founder of Momentary Fusion with Sophy Griffiths (1993- 00) she collaboratively developed the genre of “aerial dance-theatre”, a meeting point between physical performance and the aerial body, which served as a basis for her investigations into “anti-gravity performance”; using the suspended body and its ‘subversion’ of gravity as a metaphor for changing states of consciousness.

Her pioneering aerial performance productions under Momentary Fusion have toured extensively both in the U.K and worldwide (Asia, U.S, South America, South Africa, Eastern/ Central Europe) often under the portfolio of the British Council. Rocamora’s body of site-specific work (more than 13 productions) comprises commissions for museums (Victoria & Albert, Tate Modern), festivals (Greenwich & Docklands, Mayor of London, Grec Festival – Barcelona) and science projects (Retroscreen Virology) using a range of architectural contexts such as a 17th century cloister, a disused crane and a medical library. Her productions have  received prestigious awards such as Arts Council England Year of the Artist and English National Opera Most Innovative Production.

Since 2000, under Infinito Productions, her practice has focused on moving image, at times incorporating technology and resulting in both live and screen-based productions. Works include interactions between performance and video  (‘Passage’, ‘2 Bodies’, ‘Degree Zero’), wearable technology works (‘Fluctuation’ for Tate Britain and ‘Memory Release’ for Future Physical) and choreographic films ('Passage', 'Insomnia', 'Horizon of exile'). She was Associate Artist at essexdance between 2002 & 2005.

Since 2004 Rocamora is fully focused on filmmaking for installation, cinema and art broadcast. Commissioners include Watershed Media Centre, Arts Council England, Arte Tv, TV3 Catalonia and Channel 4.

Isabel has also extensively collaborated in film and television productions including work for directors Tessa Sheridan, Jonathan Glazer and Charles Sturridge. She has been invited to give lectures and workshops on her practice worldwide. Some examples are: Rhode Island School of Design, Brown and Ohio Universities - U.S; Banff New Media Centre - Canada; Bristol University, U.K; National Theatres U.K, Taiwan, Malaysia, Venezuela, New Mexico; Architect’s Association and Whitechapel Gallery - London. Currently she teaches film and artist moving image directing at ECIB (Barcelona film school) and IED (Instituto Europeo di Design).

Her current film Horizon of exile is touring international festivals since August 2007. The film recently won an IMZ Dance Screen Award for 'Best Screen Choreography' 2007 and a 'Choreography Media Honors' Award at DCW, L.A. The two channel exhibition version ( Horizon of exile installation) premiered at Galeria Senda Espai 2Nou2 in Barcelona in May 2008,  forming part of LOOP videoart festival and is being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally.

SEE SCREENINGS / EXHIBITION DIARY

(updated 20- 09- 08)

Publications

2008 'Horizon of exile' by Magda González-Mora, John Adams, Isabel Rocamora, ed. Sala Parpalló and Isabel Rocamora, Spain (exhibition catalogue)
2008 'Border Patrol' by Stephen Wilson, ed. Thames & Hudson, U.K
2006 ‘Electric Pavilion: Re-imagining the city of Bristol’, 6 Watershed Commissions (Chapter on ‘Residual’ written by Isabel Rocamora), ed. Tigerprawn for Watershed
2003 ‘Lingua Stellare, Il Teatro di Fabrizio Crisafulli 91- 02’ (the language of the stars, Crisafulli’s theatre), by Simonetta Lux, Lithos, Rome
2000 ‘This is what we do: a Muff Manual’ by Muff Architecture – Art, contributions by Katherine Shonfield and Adrian Dannatt. Edited by Rosa Ailey, Ellipsis Press, London
1998 ‘Teatro dei luoghi’ (site-specific theatre), by Raimondo Guarino, Gatd, Rome