La Trinchera - Blurb 280 words

La Trinchera ("the trench") is an Austrian-Mexican projection collective based in Mexico City.

La Trinchera found its beginnings in the First "Festival of Improvisation" staged in the City of Mexico, 2004. The founding legend has it that a bet was made at the festival that only musicians could "jam". On being challenged by an invited musician, Doris Steinbichler responded "Bet We Can!"

On the very next day, visualists joined the concert, and launched a surprise visual Jam staged from a metaphorical Trench of equipment shooting imagery out across the musicians. Thus was founded 'La Trinchera', or the Trench.

Since then, La Trinchera has operated as generator of impulses. As a "free fire zone," as a call to experimentation, and as an incalculable risk in the clash of individual creative spirit in the immediacy of a visual situation, La Trinchera has successfully brought together more than 20 artists of many diverse world views.

Together, they tugged on divergent strings to record their presence, to bundle the diversity of their projections interactively: The contrast of archaic kitchen implements on overhead projector, the culture of film handmade in 16 mm, the craft in slides of all-purpose glue and permanent-ink markers, the infinite feedback of video cameras eating themselves, and instead of fingers on the mixer, hands touch light-cones and fine tune the mix to encourage rythmic pulses.

Every visual is in flow, constantly changing, living on the immediacy of impartial reactions. Communication is open, no barrier, no resistance. Tiny nuances are grasped, made visible, and transfered to new visual variations. Here the variety of different traditions rub against themselves on a very creative and human level.