I don’t know Carmen

“I don’t know Carmen” is an artistic research based on the personal archive of Carmen Passols. In June 2018 when I was living in Barcelona I found hundreds of photographs, letters, and postcards that belonged to her. Someone had emptied her flat after her passing and left her memories on the street. This work is about the world that doesn’t exist and a melancholic disorder.

I looked her up on the internet. Her only trace in the digital world is her obituary. It is published on a webpage that offers: services to erase social media profiles of deceased people; Legal support to collect life insurances; and online wills. The rest of her personal archive is analog, probably one of the last generations without digital archives. She was a really meticulous archivist. I’ve never been an archivist, but I needed the money. Now I have a relationship with Carmen.

Marcos Nacar is a performer/dancer/maker. His works take the form of dance, words, installations, videos, and interventions. He takes the quotidian as a starting point and uses physical, written, and visual devices to generate changes of perspective. He plays on the edge between reality and fiction, and works to erase the border between them. The limit between his life and his pieces is less clear every day, which can be a bit confusing for him, maybe also for you.