Joana Moya

“The Korean Woman” is a visual essay on the metamorphic processes of memory. Just like the earth, she has her faults and limits, and is capable of withdrawing into herself, modifying her origin, and giving rise to new states and structures.

Synopsis

“The Korean Woman” (La Koreana) / A story about ferromagnetism, light and memory.

43.28486, -3.05576 are the coordinates of La Arboleda, an iron mountain which, like a magnet, attracted hundreds of immigrants in search of opportunity. It was to these coordinates that Nicasia set out from her native Malaga in 1959.

Knowing nothing about the place other than what her husband had told her in his letters, it was the train journey across the peninsula that revealed the promised land to her.

As each kilometre went by, the light changed irrevocably, the landscape grew more rugged and the sky more dense.

Some 900 kilometres later, swathed in fog and covered in rust, a mountain torn apart by mines awaits her. From that moment on, the mountain and she will struggle to preserve the memory of what they once were and to coexist with their new form.

The story revolves around two fundamental themes: on the one hand, family memory, based on this journey through the light of the peninsula, and on the other hand, the mountain, silently waiting while it is torn apart, and on whose ferromagnetic soil those decades of intense mining exploitation will remain forever engraved.

During her residency, Joana intends to explore all the layers that articulate the stratigraphy of the story: the geological and mining history of La Arboleda, ideas such as ferromagnetic memory, the social and economic impact of mining on the entire mining area of Biscay, as well as her family’s memory.

Bio
Joana Moya (Bilbao 1985). Joana studied geology and contemporary dance in the Basque Country, disciplines that would inspire her subsequent artistic projects. In 2010, she moved to Madrid to begin her training in photography and video at the EFTI. In 2018, she set up the production company Colectivo Laniebla and in 2020, the Jácara Studio, where she writes and directs works of fiction and commercials. In the same year, she received a special mention at the Cultura Inquieta festival with “Pioneers of Light” (Pioneras de la luz). Since 2021, she has been pursuing a more personal language, working on projects such as “The Korean Woman” and “Bitter Rue” (Ruda amarga), both in development.

Joana is one of the four recipients of the Residencies for Audiovisual Projects in the Development Phase of the joint call by the Cineteca (Film Archive) and the Centre for Artists in Residence at Matadero Madrid. This opportunity is intended to facilitate access to spaces and resources for independent audiovisual creators whose work focuses on the development of independent and experimental cinema, as well as cinéma vérité and its numerous variations.