A favor, please

Irati Cano Alkain's work moves through several binomials that leave the spectator dislocated, in a 'no place'.

Site Specific Video Art Project
Project by Irati Cano Alkain (2025)
— 3 min.

These are, a priori, simple binomials that branch out, opening the way to more complex questions that remain open to further reflection.

A male voice preaches to (it all seems) a listening audience; therefore, it is not only a voice, but also includes a forum to which he addresses his message. This voice poses how (maybe/maybe) women (all of them) are this or that and act in this or that way. The voice takes us back to a past of totalitarian discourses; it gives body not only to a pattern, but to patriarchy itself.

A set of images of short black and white shots is accompanied by women’s voices (based on WhatsApp messages) asking for or offering help. This segment tells us about care, productive-reproductive and company-home spaces. This space is occupied by women and is also developed thanks to the network of affection, sisterhood and collaboration woven over generations. It is precisely emotions - the raw material of care - that end up annulling the voice of the male, who closes the piece by sowing a theory about the emotions inherent to the female condition, which incapacitates her to lead on equal terms.

The irruption of digital technologies and the breakneck speed with which they have changed our ways of organising ourselves and our life sequence have generated dependency and deteriorated our quality of life. Teleworking is the new model of contemporary slavery and voice assistants (mostly female voices) are part of this slave labour force. To underline this, WhatsApp voices have been generated with artificial intelligence, by voice assistants. This is not a free formula. Women have a voice, we are and we are. However, in a system where inequality and patriarchy remain an endemic problem, one can only hope that the advancement of technology will reinforce this state of the art. Technologies are still overwhelmingly created by men, and thus women remain objects, not subjects, of our own bodies and realities. Sexualised, ‘emotionally weakened’, distorted, devalued… maybe.

Ainara Martin
Curator