2014-2015
12€
20:30h
Given a pair of opposing terms, there are other possibilities apart from the two recognized options of choosing one term or the opposite one: choosing both in a show of inclusive pluralism or not choosing either in a fit of exclusive nihilism. Nevertheless, none of the four possibilities challenges, despite their possibly radical character, the status quo implicit in the problem posed. Hence, the attempt is made to explore another possibility, which consists of a new formulation of the question, because sometimes, if not always, the answers are contained inside the question itself rather than outside.
Fernando Quesada is a member of ARTEA. He is an architect and senior lecturer in architecture projects at the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). He also teaches on the Master’s programme in stage practice and visual culture at the University of Castilla-La Mancha / MNCARS. He is author of he books La caja mágica. Cuerpo y escena (2005), Del cuerpo a la red (2013) and Arquitecturas del devenir (2014).
Previous activity
Free entrance / Auditorium of Institut del Teatre / 19h
No Title begins where my last piece ended. In Black I made invisible objects appear simply by naming them and placing them in space. After being obsessed with what is, I am now investigating what isn’t as a way to activate thinking, generate ideas and stimulate the imagination. In this new piece, I approach existence through negation. When you leave behind all that isn’t, the perspective opens to all there is instead. The piece also plays with the possibilities and limits of language and being in space and time.
No Title explores the reality that exists in language and the way it is extended into real space. It looks at how memory and imagination become confused. At how things can be here and yet not be here. At the diverse ways in which this is defined. At what leaves and what stays. At the perception that everything is temporary and nothing lasts forever. At what has already disappeared and what never disappears completely. At the meaning of a
piece and its production, at what it can achieve, its goal, its power and its limits. At the gap between the world and our ideas of it, the unbridgeable gap between thought and experience, between the here and there. No title is writing in space, writing that is both an addition and a subtraction. Writing that progresses and is erased, that moves and stops, that regards everything that is not here and, in its place, recovers everything that is.
Mette Edvardsen’s work lies in the field of the performing arts, although she also explores other formats such as video, books and writing. For several years she worked as a performer in Les Ballets C. de la B. with Hans van den Broeck (1996-2000) and Christine de Smedt (2000-2005). She has also danced in shows with Thomas Hauert/ ZOO (Be), Bock/ Vincenzi (UK), Mårten Spångberg (Se), Lynda Gaudreau (Can) and deepblue (Nl/Be), among others. Her own productions include Private collection (2002), Time will show (detail) (2004), Opening (2005/2006), The way/you move (installation, 2006), nobody will know (2007), every now and then (2009), Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010), Black (2011), and the video works Stills (2002), coffee (2006), cigarette (2008) and Faits divers (2008).
Creation and performance Mette Edvardsen
Production duchamps vzw and Mette Edvardsen/ Athome
Co-production Kaaitheater/ Brussels, BUDA/ NEXT Festival/ Kortrijk, Teaterhuset Avant Garden/ Trondheim, BIT/ Bergen, Black Box Teater/ Oslo supported by: Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Norsk Kulturråd
Special thanks to Heiko Gölzer, Mari Matre Larsen
Photo Lilia Mestre
Graphic design Michaël Bussaer
If we understand physicality as a series of processes activated when a body is in action, there is an interest in what this body in full operation transmits, something difficult to share because it occurs inside the body and because what is conveyed is often related to sensitive and intuitive areas of self-perception. This is where sound comes into play as a means of sharing this physicality. We have developed a device that tracks the different processes activated in a body in full swing so that the body – thanks to the device – then also becomes an instrument that produces and modifies the sound in real time in order to generate a soundscape.
This proposal is part of the project for research on the body called FÄUSTINO.
Sergi Fäustino: Right now, my feet are resting on the floor, on the toes and the ball of each foot. My two second toes are a little twisted, an inherited trait, as my cousin has them like that too and also my great aunt. My ankle is slightly flexed, only slightly, just enough to notice a little tension in the area. I have had surgery on both ankles; I tore the
lateral ligaments playing basketball. Not both at the same time, first one, and then the other a year later. Then I strained them again, each ankle once. It’s left them weak and I’ve never again been able to jump like I used to. My calves are pressing against the bar that runs between the legs of the chair; they are a little tense and that makes the bar more noticeable. My calves have got bigger since I took up running seriously. My knees are bent at about 45 degrees. I can feel my own weight on the chair across the backs of my thighs. I can feel the right quadriceps more than the left. My pelvis is tilted and it’s pulling on the lower lumbar region owing to the action of hamstrings. I have short hamstrings because of doing dinghy sailing during puberty, the stage when the adult body is formed. It’s bad for the lower back but good for the knees. I can barely keep my lower back straight. My belly is hanging forward and my guts are pressing on the inside. My upper arms are hanging loose at the shoulders and my forearms are resting on the computer just behind the wrists. I can’t quite straighten out my right arm owing to an accident when I was little, I broke a piece of bone and it got trapped in the joint. My fingers are on the keys. I’m craning my neck and bending my head downwards, looking at the computer screen as I write this.
Idea and body Sergi Fäustino
Sound and props Marc Romagosa
Acknowledgements Josep Maria Padullés, Roc Jiménez
We have reserved seats for people who use wheelchairs. Please, contact us at publics@mercatflors.cat so we can guarantee good care
