AGORAPHOBIA is a captivating experimental video by Gala Mirissa: inquiring into into the notion of movement as an universal language, it challenges the viewers' perceptual parameters initiating them into highteneed experience capable of encouraging a cross-pollination. One of the most interesting aspects of Mirissa's work is the way through her experimental approach, she combines the Photography and Art with motion graphics and thus create something that looks alive, great but also unique. We are particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her captivating and multifaceted artistic production. 1) Hello Gala and welcome to WomenCinemakers: before starting to elaborte about your work we would like to invite our readers to visit www.galamirissa.com in order to get a wide idea out your artistic production and we would like to introduce you to our readers with a couple of questions regarding your background. You have a solid formal training and after your studies of Philology you nurtured your education with the Multimedia program at the Online University of Catalonia: how did these experiences influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural background direct the trajectory of your artistic research? I started to study Philology in a vocational way, being a library rat since a child. I love literature and languages. But fate took me casually to the Multimedia world. I had a long period of rest due to a surgery that became so complicated and I had to undergo continuous surgeries more. My recovery was prolonged in some years of rest and on the internet I found the basis of my training. And later to study this was my passion. The difference is that I looked for the Philology but the Audiovisual world looked for me to heal me. Do not you find it curious that my passion for giving movement to photographs started when I could not walk? Art really heals, because the ability to create makes you useful. Also Philology is not only linguistic and literature, it has a strong roots with history, communication, art or sociology. This is where I find a balance, because once I have acquired some knowledges I find a range of possibilities to combine audiovisual art with a deeper and sentimental theme. 2) For this special edition of WomenCinemakers we have selected AGORAPHOBIA, an extremely experimental video project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that ca be viewed at https://youtu.be/BOg1eRLTQPE. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the notion of movement as an universal language is the way your work provides the viewers with a multilayered visual experience. When walking our readers through the genesis of AGORAPHOBIA, would you tell us what did draw you to focus on the theme of agoraphobia? Women are more likely than males to be victims of suffer physical or mental abuse, reason why they are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety compared with men, and they are three times as likely to have agoraphobia (fear of being in public places). Usually there are victims but blamed by society, and when they fall ill they become defenseless . About 10%–14% of women will have post-traumatic stress disorder in their lives, compared with 5%–6% of men. And 6.6% in women will have generalized anxiety disorder, but just 3.6% of men will. I dedicate it to all those women who have suffered some mental disorder or anxiety product of a society that annuls them as people. In particular, one of my favorite poets, who could not stand the pressure and ended up committing suicide, Alfonsina Storni, who wrote a combative feminism in the line that is observed in the poem "You want me white", which is motivated by relationships problematic with man, decisive in the life of the poet. Making reference to a society that demands more to women than to men. 3) We have particularly appreciated the gorgeous nuances of tones that marks out your works: could you tell us something about the evolution of the pallette of your images? I am responsible for animating these images and give alive, a process in which unfortunatly lose some resolution when creating different frames for animation. The merit of this visual quality depends of high-sphere professionals. Without the excellence of ERICH CAPARAS, (Graphic arts and photography for a living 1980-2000 for clients like National Geographic, Smithsonian, Discovery Channel, Kodak, Durst, Victoria Secret, and the White House), and the makeup artist Hilde Marie Johansen ( Co-Founder of SMA Makeup Academy, Bangkok ) this video would not have been possible. I would also like to mention many more professionals who have done possible this video, in makeup, hairdressing, modeling, photography effects, etc : Cathz BA, Elite Photoart Studio, Mini I'am , Tamonwan Duangjak, Ponsawan Pansun , Suphatida Srisopon, Bee Issarangkool Na Ayutthaya , Nooth Pudy, Namthip Thiphayakamol Tanon Tanabhataravaratorn, Namliab Prapat, Morphacio Bodyart, Ikie Morphacio Bodyart, Crystal Oceanie, Stefani Anggadjaja, Hilda Winaz and Victoria Marlina of Makeover Makeup Academy, Rocky Jaya Saputra, Prima Imaging Kedua, Jean Dara, Ann Sarocha, Wennifer Chia-Wei Hsu, Nissara Janhom Pattarawan, Eve Panjama Sangtaewtim, Weeraya Wongpinij, Chakrit Chanpen , and Tor Kolangcom. 4) Your practice deviates from traditional videomaking and photography to create a powerful combination between movement and stillness: what did address you to explore the boundaries between staticity and the evolution of images? Sometimes I am a bit impulsive, but this allows me to have a certain naturalness and freshness, unleashing tendencies. I escape from traditional marketing because I did not start with the intention of marketing, I love exhibitions and Art. I do not think of the techniques but of awakening the sensory system either with sight or sounds, and incidentally, awakening consciousness. I do not pretend to like a specific audience, but enjoy doing it. Game with the images giving live to the static. I want a image vibrant and agitated. . 5) AGORAPHOBIA also raises questions on the issue of identity and reflects a constant change in your self-image: how does direct experience from everyday life's experience fuel your creative process? We are creative when within the possibilities of our environment, we are able to create something new. It is like a game. To this we add the stimuli received by emotions, both positive and negative, that mark our personality. To be creative and inspired, I need to be alone. If I am working, I need my secret space in my own office in front my three computers, always on. Although I did not set a schedule or discipline, I start my animation after having the idea in my mind. In this I feel free. Usually I do not work more than one Looping video for day. That piece will be unique and special. And when time has passed, I join Loopings to create a video. But there is another creativity in me that becomes a constant 24 hours. I carry a small tripod in my bag to use it with the phone, but if I know I'm going to a special place or event, then I go with my camera, video camera, and another tripod. I also license images in motion and cinemagraphs, so any showcase helps me create an image. I record and photograph everything that I see around me, already thinking about what I will do with that image. 6) Sound plays an important role in your video and it sometimes provides the footage of AGORAPHOBIA with such etheral and a bit enigmatic atmosphere: according to media theorist Marshall McLuhan there is a 'sense bias' that favors visual logic. How do you see the relationship between sound and moving images? Many videoart mates write to ask me where I get the sounds, if I can provide the sources. We know that there are free libraries of rights to extract music, but it is difficult to find sensual voices and sounds, and if you find them they do not adapt well to your scene. Well, I start from the emotions, I am a very sensitive woman, there are days that I am extremely happy, passionate, others in which I would like to throw myself into the void, hurt of this cruel and unjust society, etc ... and approve these states of encouragement to record what comes out of my soul, sighs, complaints, cries, applause, laughter, even I recite poetry and narrations written by me. That is my essence and spirituality that I then apply to my works. I try to make each of my works a part of me. I want to achieve a personal and unique touch, and make my videos part of my essence Time ago, I made a gothic video with the artist Giussepina Irene Grocia (Gigro), and it was like an awakening of my own personality. I had the impulse to record my sensual voice because at that moment I felt in this state, and I added it to the video. It was a success, many people wrote to congratulate me ... but I did not do anything, I just showed myself as I was. I think that socially they force you to contain your feelings, you have to be serious and calm, to be correct, but then I am not myself. 7) AGORAPHOBIA seems to reflect German photographer Andreas Gursky's words, when he stated that Art should not be delivering a report on reality, but should be looking at what's behind something: are you particularly interested in structuring your work in order to urge the viewers to elaborate personal associations? In particular, How open would you like your works to be understood? how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination within your artistic practice? Erich Caparas is the photographer of this video , and I perceive him more focused on the human species. In Gurski, the human is part of an environment, becoming just another element more. For the video I chose images of several women and one man, I wanted to focus on people and avoided any environment. With the succession of female images, all of them differents, I wanted to convey that it is a disturbance that can affect everyone equally. The fact that there is only one male figure reflects the minimal proportion that affects this type of anxiety in males. 8) especially in relation to modern digital technologies, what is your point about the evolution of visual arts in the contemporary art? In particular, how is in your opinion technology affecting the consumption of art? Multimedia is the future and already the present. The museums will become virtual reality exhibitions and we will see a Van Gogh walking in "a starry night" in front of our noses. We're going to see the Mona Lisa printed in full-size 3D, and we're going to have a Dalí hologram talking to you with your real voice. It is unstoppable, any image that we are seeing today, in a matter of years will be obsolete. Photography as a flat, paper concept will no longer make sense, everything will be projections in movement. Even the type of animation that I work is already obsolete. You can see this on TV, but in Museums you will feel them as a real experience. The same will happen with paintings. We will see them exposed not only in movement but in 3D. Humility and naturalness will be lost a bit, the power to create things with your own hands will lose valour...that´s sad, but is the progress. The new apps will serve to give any kind of effect and it won´t be necessary to study. The painter and the artists will be left alone, his work will be devalued, unless he adapts to the new virtual times and decides to invest in a multimedia team. Google is going to launch a video editor to convert your files into virtual reality videos, so that any user will be able to create. It will be necessary to have knowledges of Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro. But I would not be surprised if in a few years we do not even need that. 9) We have appreciated the originality of your artistic research and especially the way you recontextualized the idea of portrait and body: many artists, ranging from Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi to French painter Victorine Meurent did not fall to prey to the emotional prettification and gave crucial contribution to the development of art: from immemorial ages women have been discouraged from producing something 'uncommon', however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. How would you describe your personal experiences as an unconventional artist? And what's your view on the future of women in this interdisciplinary field? I can not see the difference of the current woman to that of our ancestors, I am the total negativity before this issue. We consider that we have more rights, that we are freer, we can be independent and study ... but it is a mirage. Actually, when a woman is sexually abused, at the judgment she is asked what kind of clothes she wore, whether she put up resistance or closed her legs tightly. If she is also pretty, the precedence that perhaps she provoked is added. The woman is always blamed. And as for the theme of emotions, we try to repress the emotional character of the woman. If you see a very heartfelt woman, who cries a lot, if she gets angry easily or is passionate and dreamer, maybe people call her temperamental, bipolar or crazy. If she is sensual it will surely be an easy woman or with little birds in the head, in love ...etc. Besides considering that this kind of women aren´t intelligents. All are false stereotypes. Society tends to devalue the feminine character, it is not well seen, when it is something beautiful and sentimental, but a man can behave rudely and temperamental after the victory of a football game, verbiare curse, behave like a male and nothing happens. Respecting Art, if the new generation of visual artists are mostly female, why are they so little visible today in exhibitions, fairs and galleries? Linda Nochlin wrote the article “Why have there been no great women artists?”, showing the struggle of women to win the visibility and recognition they deserved, but nothing has changed. Another important fact to mention is that women, having a lower visibility compared to men in Art Galleries, appear frecuently nudes. We are seen more as objects , our ideology is unimportant, society wants us beautifull and empty. This is because in the video Agoraphoby the protagonists are extremely beautiful and semi-naked women. Society wants them in that way and it is a real psicological pressure. Also in Spain I do not find an special interest in visual arts, if in our country it is difficult to live from art, for a woman it is an almost impossible task, of all the artists that I know, I could not say if more than two live exclusively from their production . The usual thing is to combine it with other jobs. I m not really possitive, sinceresly. Maybe when politics use us in some political cause to gain feminine votes they encourage equality, but it will be unfortunatly temporary. 10) Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Gala. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? You are welcome! It´s my pleasure. Actually I need to stop to think about where I'm going. I have the feeling that I'm working a path and I'm moving towards something new, that I do not even know what it is, but I know it will be related to 3D space. So I'm going to take a few sabbaticals and then continue studying hard. As projects I have many festivals pending for this 2018. I am a finalist in VISUAL ARTIST AWARDS MIAMI 2018 for The Best Technical Innovation (VVA 2018) to be held this July 1st. Between June 23 and September 23, I will be participating in the exhibition HUMAN RIGHTS? ' : INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION - DEFENDING THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION, sponsored by the AIAPI Unesco. That takes place in SPAZIO-TEMPO Arte e FONDAZIONE OPERA Campana Dei Caduti, and curated by Roberto Ronca. On August 31 I will participate in "Silently Moving Festival" at the legendary Essaney Silent Film Museum, located on the original site of Essanay Studios, San Francisco - where Charlie Chaplin's Tramp films were produced, and where silent films are on show weekly. I'm working with GIGRO in a Gothic exhibition in Italy, but I still can not specify more information. And as something more specific and laborious, I am doing a dissemination of the 2014 Genocide about the Yazidis. The Yazidis are persecued to resisted to convert to Islam. According to the UN, some 5,000 Yezidis were killed and 200,000 people fled from panic of being killed, raped and sold as slaves. It´s an artistic visual documentary that tells the story through the paintings of the Yazidi-iraqui artist Ammar Abdal. Ammar Abdal, has received several death threats from the terrorist group, and he is a refugiated in Germany. However, he persists in the idea of continuing this work by ensuring that his weapon is painting. I m very grateful for the interview.