María Ruido
Antrepo No.3

Born in 1967, Orense. Lives in Barcelona.

María Ruido is an artist, filmmaker and writer whose fields of interest include social, cultural and gender identity, the culture industry and the processes of rationalising transnational capitalism.
The documentary video Amphibious Fictions (2005) focuses on the precarious and flexible nature of work in the post-industrial labour market. The film researches the social, economic and emotional changes created by new working practices imposed on the traditional textile sector, situated in the industrial area of Barcelona. The video traces the wider impact of the changes brought about by industrial dislocation and the 'optimisation' of transnational capital, which results in poorer working conditions within the European Union and beyond. The piece shows this deterioration in working practices as a conscious economic measure related to increased production, not a side effect as is often suggested. It reveals that the informal economies in the textile sector (i.e. illegal sweatshops) are not a consequence of the recent arrival of immigrants, but result from the re-structuring of the sector in the 1980s, when many factories closed down and production moved to people's houses. As a result, the workers were de-unionised and literally and figuratively 'domesticated'. Ruido emphasises the significance of personal and collective experience in resisting the relentless onslaught from official and institutional power structures in a postindustrial society.