Amalia Ulman’s Sordid Scandal exists both as a video work and as a live performance that mixes fiction, a confessional style, academic or scientific language and historical anecdotes. Structured as a powerpoint presentation, in which Ulman narrates the process of shooting her film El Planeta, the video grasps the repercussions of the fictional on the real. Its script weaves, in a comedic style, dark personal memories with the technicalities of filming in a small town, restraining grants systems, globalist deceptions and the story of a criminal mother-daughter duo from Gijón.

Amidst the devastation of post-crisis Spain, mother and daughter bluff and grift to keep up the lifestyle they think they deserve, bonding over common tragedy and an impending eviction.