ANA ESTEVE REIG
Lucky Images, 2024
Single-channel video
8’50»
Lucky Images is a video that explores both the power of images and the visual potential of technology itself, in this case, AI, since it was created with it. The entire work revolves around the desire to see images or visual phenomena that bring us luck or can announce positive changes in our lives. In this case, AI functions as a «magical» tool that simulates these images in front of the viewer’s eye to offer the possibility of achieving that luck. The fact that the images are not real, but created by a machine, does not diminish the «credibility» of being witnesses to the visualization of these visual phenomena. In this case, we are witnesses to images that we do not know how to categorize since they are in a limbo between simulation, reality, and the digital.
AI accompanies us as a voice-over throughout the video as a guide reflecting on the countless hours we spend searching for and looking at visually pleasing images. However, some of them possess magical, uncommon qualities that can deeply impact us, leading us to actively seek them out. AI is presented as a visualizer simulating three magical and specific phenomena: shooting stars, rainbows, and the famous green flash. As the video progresses, we encounter a succession of shots that aim to shorten the path of the search for luck in order to visualize these phenomena that will have a positive impact on the viewer’s life. Viewers will assess whether it works or not.
The video is presented as a magical catalyst for luck.
Ana Esteve Reig studied Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 2008, she moved to Kassel, Germany, where she studied Freie Kunst at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. She completed a postgraduate year as a Meisterschülerin under the guidance of the teacher and artist Bjørn Melhus. Since then, her work has been focused on video, considering it her primary artistic medium.
She currently lives and works in Madrid, Spain. Her work has been recognized with the BBVA Video Art Creation Multiverse Scholarship and has received support from both the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Community of Madrid. She was also a finalist for the BMW 2023 Award and recently had a solo exhibition at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. Her work has been exhibited in important institutions such as the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern de Alcoi, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, and the Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló (EACC), among others.
Her work explores the construction of social archetypes and human behavior, primarily through video installations. Dramatizing popular experiences and collective identities, using fiction, film/TV characters, popular culture, rituals, and virtual reality as lenses to examine the individual’s place within society.