Since 2020 Camila Téllez and Eszter Katalin have been collaborating in the mini-series Transición primaveral/Spring Transition.
A mini-series about a vampire’s transitioning, focusing on the topic of vampirism from a queer and trans-feminist perspective.

At the core of the series stands the interdependence of this figure with both dead and undead beings as well as the duality of power and submission characterizing them. In order to survive, the vampire needs to build through a network of affections their safer spaces. This makes it essential for them to create kin, to create their own chosen family, as they reproduce through biting and not through heterosexual intercourse. In this sense, the title of the exhibition highlights the most vulnerable aspect of a vampire: needing to drink blood (yours), which in turn is also the strongest drive for movement and longing for belonging, displacing the question of identity to the desired interior of the other’s body.

At the same time, Lack of You also refers to the lack of ground the vampire performed by Camila Téllez walks upon. Born in Chile and nourished by their childhood alter ego of a vampire (which they created in order to deal with their assigned gender after the arrival of their menstruation), they decided to return to this figure during the moments of social upheaval in their country. Transición primaveral refers to this moment of revolution, while also pointing to the reproductive period of bats. Being a mini-series realized in the Basque country, the project exemplifies a contra-migration, similar to a wave, since the vampire moves and acts on grounds which took and extracted their own earth. In this sense, Lack of You also articulates how unpaid debts return through the undead.

Created by the collaboration of two artists, who for different reasons experienced migration, the series features conversations which express a desire for belonging yet at the same time negate any linear conception of it, rather insisting on the complexity of being in the world within affective structures beyond extractionism. This is most of all problematized through the vampire’s relation with the camera, the interviewer and the image, who are repeatedly trespassing their corporal limits by entering and dissecting their subjectivity. Thus, Lack of You is not only the desire of the vampire for blood but also the desire of the interviewer for an image. The process of learning and unlearning what pushes them to incorporate the other is a key driving force of the series. Thus, vampirism in our reading generates daring bodies, who relentlessly pose the questions towards the co-dependencies which exist between different survival strategies.

For the exhibition at VBKÖ a selection of episodes is planned with unreleased materials presented for the first time. We will open the exhibition on November 30th, 2023 with a welcoming drink (both alcoholic + non-alcoholic options) in an ambiental setting. After this we will proceed to the co-working area of VBKÖ to screen a compilation of some chapters of the series (duration: 50 minutes). Guests will have the opportunity to join us after the screening in a follow-up conversation.

During the opening hours of VBKÖ between November 30th and December 20th visitors will have the opportunity to view a different compilation of chapters of the series with a duration of around 50 minutes.

On December 20th we will celebrate the finissage of “Lack of You” providing yet another selection of episodes.

Credits: Camila Téllez and Eszter Katalin