La gran mentira de la muerte (The big lie of death)

“La gran mentira de la muerte” (“The big lie of death”) is a multichannel sound and film installation realised for MACBA’s Capella. It explores Carmen’s myth intertwined with flamenco and bullfighting, evoking the spectacle of death and involving the spectator. The work connects the ritual performance of death with cinema’s own murderous traditions.

Carmen embodies various subalternities: colonial, racial, gender, class, and criminality. She represents western otherness and a significant stereotype, with these subalternities pushing her beyond identity and setting in motion the myth’s tragic destiny.

The film, featuring Rocío Molina, José “El Oruco,” Yinka Esi Graves, Tosh Basco, and bullfighter Vanessa Montoya, uses spatialized sound to evoke horror. Unlike a horror movie, it suggests an escape within the myth. Tsang, through collaboration and performance, interrogates cinematic violence in pursuit of the ‘impossible’ image. This project was developed with pie.fmc and Moved by the Motion through residencies in Seville and a live opera in Zürich.