articles

Writing for media in Madrid and New York on film, performing arts, and visual art. Editing/translating for media and publishing companies in New York. In early career, writing for El Público magazine by the Ministry of Culture of Spain. I Madrid/NY Media I Madrid Magazine I NY Publishing

 
 
 

Madrid/NY Media

Writing for media in Madrid and in New York for El Urogallo magazine, and collaborations for The Washington Square News magazine, New York University. Focus on on film and perrforming arts.

Articles I Photo: © Laurie Anderson’s Big Science

 

Madrid Magazine

Writing for El Público [The Public] performing arts magazine by the Ministry of Culture of Spain. Focus on contemporary theater and dance.

Articles I Photo: © Aloma Lafontana for La Fura dels Baus

 

NY Publishing

Editing/translating for media companies Vivendi Universal (writers coordinator), Time Warner (copy editor), and publishing companies McGraw Hill, Scholastic, Prentice Hall (copy editor) in New York. Projects in Chicago, Portland, and Orlando.

— Copy editing in New York

 
 

FILM I ART

Madrid I New York

NEW YORK I “I began my PhD Audiovisual Creativity and Production in Madrid and completed my research and writing in New York, where I studied filmmaking. During this time, I worked for El Urogallo magazine and contributed to publications such as The Washington Square News at New York University. Eventually, I found myself working with artists I had once written about, including Robert Wilson, Isabella Rossellini, Fiona Shaw, and Dominique Sanda at Lincoln Center. At The Watermill Center, I had the opportunity to meet Susan Sontag and Salman Rushdie, and I attended an event hosted by actor Hugh Jackman and musician Lady Gaga. I also interviewed notable figures such as composer Philip Glass, actor John Leguizamo, and BAM director Joseph Melillo.

My journey led me to engage with influential theater figures, including director Richard Foreman and director/professor Richard Schechner, who invited me to attend a theater workshop at New York University. Director Anne Bogart, at Columbia University, agreed to supervise my PhD dissertation. I also volunteered for The Wooster Group, led by Elizabeth LeCompte, where I worked alongside Kate Valk and Willem Dafoe at the Selwyn Theater, and participated in a workshop at the Trisha Brown Dance Company.” —PV I PhD


“Attending a PhD program in Madrid, I was an active writer on film/art. For El Periódico, I covered a cinema book series edited by director José Luis Garci; German dramaturg Heiner Müller, and Spanish avant-garde writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna. I collaborated with Diario 16, La Verdad de Murcia newspapers, and Osmus magazine.” —PV

Art I Madrid

“I received a grant from Castilla-La Mancha government to research at Columbia University towards a PhD dissertation on Robert Wilson. The following year, I studied filmmaking in New York with the highest grant of the year by the Ministry of Culture of Spain (Fulbright program the following year). In both residencies, I wrote on film/art for The Washington Square News magazine, New York University.” —PV

Film I New York

“After finishing filmmking and writing studies in New York, I was assigned as US correspondent for El Urogallo magazine. I wrote on the 9/11 attacks for La Tribuna newspaper. Early morning on 10/11, I filmed next to the Twin Towers for New York Spin.” —PV

Life in New York


Freelance writing for media in Madrid and New York on performing arts, film, visual art, and literature. MADRID Staff writer: El Público (magazine). Freelance: El Periódico, La Verdad, La Tribuna, Diario16 (newspapers); Ronda Iberia, Factor Cinco, Osmus (magazines). NEW YORK Correspondent: El Urogallo (magazine). Freelance: The Washington Square News (magazine).

Film I Art

 
 
 

CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

UK

UK I Program leader, BA (Hons) Contemporary Media Practice, Arts University Plymouth. Work involuding shaping the new degree, teaching as principal lecturer, and managing program (staff, facilities, resources) as well as research, scholarship, and practice. Selected projects: Media Lab, innovation/technology program; MIXarts, interdisciplinary arts workshop series; and Ulysses, international artists program. “A new cutting-edge degree, is set as a hands-on program with focus on creativity and production, ranging from film, television and new media to the performing and visual arts. This program primes a new generation of contemporary media artists to meet the growing international need for innovative audiovisual content.” —PV I AUP


“It’s the destruction of the real —an almost perfect crime that erases reality itself. As Jean Baudrillard, the guru of French postmodern theory, argues, this happens when contemporary media and technological society deny a transcendent reality. Instead, they affirm alternative realities —digital and virtual realities. Today’s media integrate both traditional forms (radio, television, film) and new platforms (online). Baudrillard describes a technological society witnessing the evolution of a universal, interconnected network of audio, video, and electronic text communications. This network blurs the lines between interpersonal and mass communication, as well as between public and private exchanges.

In the present day, news primarily comes from websites and television. We send messages to friends instead of calling them. The days of family board games have been replaced by hunting monsters in interactive games. For media creators, the challenge lies in the fact that people are now exposed to more audiovisual information than ever before in history. This marks a shift from a vocal society to a textual one, and now, a visual society. As Picasso once said, "art is the elimination of the unnecessary." Yet, in our globalized world, we are bombarded by endless bits of data —messages, images, sounds— that seem essential to daily life. This constant influx creates a fragmented perception of reality that, in turn, shapes and distorts our understanding of the world. Today, we are not solitary beings, but satellites floating around other satellites, in an endless orbit.” —Pedro Valiente [Text from AUP]

We Are Satellites Floating Around Satellites


The Invention of The Real: Capturing Contemporary Media visual essay in the frame of the new BA (Hons) Contemporary Media Practice, Arts University Plymouth, published on ARTS Magazine by ARTSevilla, Spain; and Critical Transmedia 12: Proscethics of the Late Anthropocene, digital book by artist/professor Phillip Baldwin, Stony Brook University, NY. I Behance Contemporary Media

The Invention of The Real: Capturing Contemporary Media 

 
 

PERFORMING ARTS

Madrid

MADRID I “I may have been the youngest staff writer on performing arts in Spain. Before graduating from BA Journalism at UCM, I took my first job ever for El Público magazine by the Ministry of Culture. For four years, I was assigned to cover mostly experimental theater, contemporary dance, new authors, and avant-garde artists such as Heiner Müller, Laurie Anderson and La Fura dels Baus. For its last issue, I did the cover's feature: premiere at Centro Dramático Nacional (National Theater of Spain) of Don Juan Último directed by Robert Wilson with text by Vicente Molina Foix. I Articles

Robert Wilson is “an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who has been described by The New York Times as [America's] or even the world' s foremost vanguard 'theater artist.

[Texts: Wikipedia]

Heiner Müller was “a German dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdramatic theater.“

Laurie Anderson is “an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Laurie was married to musician Lou Reed.”

La Fura dels Baus is “a Spanish theater group founded in 1979 in Moià, Barcelona, known for their urban theater, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries with the audience.”


Staff writer for performing arts magazine El Público, Centro de Documentación Teatral, INAEM (Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y la Música), Ministry of Culture of Spain, probably, the main specialized media on performing arts for decades in Ibero America.

Performing Arts