Witchcraft in Bilbao

JESSE JONES: TREMBLE, TREMBLE

Dates: October 31, 2019–March 1, 2020 Curator: Manuel Cirauqui Film & Video gallery (103)

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the exhibition Jesse Jones: Tremble Tremble as part of the 2019 programming of the Film & Video gallery, a space where the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents referential works of video art and video installation, and explores the moving image as a key artistic language of our time.

This is an ambitious installation by the artist Jesse Jones (Dublin, 1978) which weaves together film, sculpture, live actions, and sound. The core of the work shows images of a female giantess witch embodying female power and the power of supernatural forces on two giant video screens. This figure proclaims a new legal order, called In Utera Gigantae, based on the shamanic power of women, invalidating any other law or government.

Tremble Tremble was originally created in 2017 for the Irish pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale and reflects a time of intense debates on the abortion law in Ireland. At the same time, the work functions as a portrait of a timeless archetype beyond national or ethnic identification. The powerful witch in the video, played by the Irish actress Olwen Fouéré, can therefore be perceived as a disruptive feminist paradigm which has the potential to transform reality and reveals witchcraft to be an emancipating tool for women.