Belén Barenys, much more than Rigoberta's showgirl: "I am very afraid to stop being a punk, to become very adult and very boring"

• Rigoberta Bandini "When I was little I wanted to be a boy, it seemed more fun to me"

When one searches for "

" on Google, what arises, more than answers, are three questions: who is Rigoberta's showgirl?

Who is the girl who sings with Rigoberta Bandini?

And a shot that was caught by the hair: how old is Rigoberta Bandini?

Just yesterday a woman stopped her on the street:

. "

Everything in the success of Paula Ribó's alter ego after that explosive Benidorm Fest stayed in the family.

And Belén, in addition to being the main showgirl of that mythical

is, yes, her little cousin.

But there is much more.

In the background, on a shelf, you can see a Pikachu doll.

Space is white, very white.

White is the cover that covers the visible arm of the sofa;

white is the half-open door, through which a glimpse of a coat rack appears;

white, the back wall on which hangs, stridently, a painting in lurid tones that shows a being - perhaps an alien? -

on a road.

, also stands out in her whiteness with her red sweatshirt with a hood to match with those enormous horn-rimmed glasses that make small faces even smaller.

Some time ago he published a video on Instagram in which he turned the pages of a carefully bound book, with its rings and its transparent plastic cover, as the diligent students kept their notes.

"The terrifying colonies", reads the title written in childish calligraphy.

It is possibly the first work by Belén Barenys,

's hard drive along with hundreds of drawings that are not expected to see the light either.

When she was little, she wanted to be a writer.

When she grew up , she has become a

, as long as she hasn't already seen herself.

Trailer for Self-Defense, the new Filmin series

It cannot be seen in the Zoom frame, but Belén looks pregnant with a belly.

The same one that caused great collective euphoria at the BBK festival last summer, when she decided to literally jump on stage naked from the waist up.

The same, too, that she raised an immense ovation in Madrid in October, when nobody expected her and screaming at Rigoberta's side.

The same paunchy, but even bigger.

she says from the living room of her house in Barcelona.

She laughs.

She still has a month to pay off.

Her name is Belén but they call her Memé because when they were little her brother Juanito did not know how to say her name correctly.

Juan, by the way, was the fourth member of the Benidorm Fest team and his subsequent tour with Esteban Navarro, Rigoberta's husband.

.

Memé is also her name of war, the shelter for her artistic, musical and television project.

Because Belén, Memé, is presenting a series these days,

, which almost by itself could fill out this entire profile.

Or not?

Self Defense

is a

with 10 short episodes, with a beginning and an end.

Each one portrays, between 10 and 20 minutes, a theme that is already announced in the title:

,

,

...

.

"Beyond issues of class, race, it is something that challenges everyone more or less at this age," he explains.

«And I think that this is given above all by our relationship with the internet».

Sharing our things on the internet makes us realize that we have a lot in common.

And when we are already super self-conscious, we laugh about it

To illustrate his reflection, he resorts, of course, to TikTok: «I have seen many people who say: 'I have not had a unique experience in my life'.

You think that something that happens to you is very special and then, suddenly, after a while a tiktok arrives: isn't it happening to you...?

.

And when we are already super self-conscious we do the triple ringlet and laugh about it ».

Here is the perfect synopsis of

and the two singles that advance Memé's solo musical career.

Everything in the artistic career of Belén Barenys is excessive, transgressive, even unpleasant.

Certainly not suitable for boomers.

His populated armpits and groin shine in the series, a curly wig placed in the crotch of a Spiderman suit shines in the video clip of his latest single,

, you can see boobs, dirty bows from walking around the house, you can hear people talking of rapes, suffered or suggested, of

, of blowjobs and of dancing pussies.

Everything that should not be is palpable all the time.

, co-star of

-Defense and best friend, in the series and in life, intervenes from the lower left box of the screen

: "She really wants to break up with a lot of things."

"I always try to make the cultural products that I like to consume, and I like people who try at all costs to be different, to get out of the norm, from the

," the questioner alleges.

«I follow that trail a bit and in my music, in the series, in whatever I

, so you don't think that you have already seen 4,000 similar ones at a glance on Insta».

I try to do things that couldn't have been done by anyone, don't think you've already seen 4,000 of the same ones at a glance on Insta

He calls the artifact resulting from going back to

culture "hyper pop" and that plays into it when he puts on Memé's punk outfit, although he often doesn't know exactly where the line between Memé and Belén is.

, ditch.

If she had to define her with a meme, Berta would choose the one with the puppy that drinks coffee between the flames.

"The world burns and she is like there, still," she says.

.

The fact is that the series is recorded in the apartment that the two protagonists shared in the real world and it has a lot of them, of a superlative them.

Not in vain, Autodefensa was born from a hooligan video about a vacation in Peñíscola that they published on Instagram.

They recorded the homemade short very smoked, titled it

and wished in the caption that it become "a documentary like to put on Filmin."

Bingo.

The director

, author of the acclaimed documentary

, succumbed to the

charm of the film and decided to turn it -or turn them, rather- into a series.

"When we told our mothers all this, they asked us:

.

Surprisingly, and against all odds, we can now say that this gentleman is our friend.

Yes, we have a male friend, straight, cis, 40 years old.

View this post on Instagram

Although he always felt a strong artistic impulse, Barenys began to consider culture as a professional opportunity when he discovered the theater.

He dropped out of Philosophy in his second year to devote himself full time to acting,

.

He did it in a natural way, they had always composed things together.

His older cousin started doing concerts and she needed a band, so she started her family.

More gigs were coming out and, when he wanted to realize it, he was there, on the arm of his cousin, on the stage of the Benidorm Fest and in the halls (and the mouths) of all Spain.

He had left the theater.

"I know, I'm the queen of school failure," she jokes.

In the era of self-definition, Memé does not like to be labeled as an artist, a young woman or a female artist.

.

"Look, for example, how ugly I look in my video clips, this dirty thing of mine...", she points out.

«As deconstructed as we all are, it is very difficult not to want to represent yourself as very beautiful on the internet.

I try to make my

on Instagram with these pints of walking around the house, lying on the sofa.

.

And it does not try to be any kind of claim, it is that it seems to me a funnier and much more honest representation ».

In the midst of this character, this prank, where does a pregnant 22-year-old girl come in?

Creating a public figure, however blurred the limits may be, has its contradictions.

Doubts have arisen in Belén Barenys as a result of her pregnancy.

«I have not been able to fit it very well.

In the midst of this character, this prank, where does a pregnant 22-year-old girl come in? », She admits.

"We are two very scared radicals, very afraid of things, each one for their own reasons, but the good thing is that we are friends and we are not alone, so we can allow ourselves to be

," they present their Self-Defense, which It will premiere on November 29 on Filmin.

-And what is your great fear, Memé?

-I am very afraid to stop being a punk.

What scares me the most is changing and becoming a very adult and very boring person.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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