escenas discursivas

Problematics and concepts to be investigated and developed through the interviews:

Questions:

What are the critical concepts and discourses? How are they produced and practiced? Where do they take place? Who are their actors? What are their agencies? What does it mean to be critical at the contemporary performing arts scene in Madrid today? (Critical to what? Critical, for the sake of what?)

critical cultural policies and micro-policies (be they top-down or bottom-up):

• opening the scene toward international context – bringing authors from abroad and including local actors: In-Presentable festival; curators from Europe are not interested in Spain and Madrid
• creating space for continual public talks and dialogues – festivals: before Desviaciones, Situaciones; now In-Presentable, series of lectures in Museo Reina Sofia
• collaboration between university and the scene – José A. Sánchez, Artea research group, Jaime Conde-Salazar Pérez – Aula de Danza Estrella Casero de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares / vs. university and the practice are not connected at the performing arts scene
• meeting point of performing and visual arts – La Casa Encendida, Matadero, Museo Reina Sofia, José A. Sánchez, Master en Práctica Escénica y Cultura Visual (Master in Performing Arts Practices and Visual Culture)
• publishing (books, magazines, blogs): Cairón magazine (Artea), Continuum Live arts blog (Celia Díez Huertas, Marta Muñoz Recarte, Jaime Conde-Salazar, Francisco Villar), Tea-tron.com net of the blogs, Archivo Virtual de Artes Escénicas (Artea: Óscar Cornago), key books: José A. Sánchez, Desviaciones, 1999; José A. Sánchez, Situaciones, 2002; José A. Sánchez, Jaime Conde-Salazar (Editors), Cuerpos sobre Blanco, 2003; José A. Sánchez, Artes de la escena y de la acción en España 1978-2002, 2006 (2004); Juan Domínguez, In-presentable 03-07, 2007
• creating the context – before Maria La Ribot, Ana Buitrago, Blanca Calvo / vs. investing only in your own work; today also Juan Domínguez (dance practice) and José A. Sánchez (theoretical field and education)
• providing space for work: La Casa Encendida, Cuarta Pared, Teatro Pradillo, Sala Triángulo, Off Limits gallery, (Matadero – is just starting) / vs. no free places for work, a lot of studios that you should rent
• collaboration between public/private institutions and independent/freelance scene – La Casa Encendida: In-Presentable, Artea

critical practices in ways of work and production:

• exhibition context – ‘white cube’ vs. ‘black box’; exit from the theatre and its genres, especially important for ‘new dance’
• Living room festival – rejection of the public space and creation of new public space, freedom from institutional requests, involving the audience
• collaboration, collectivity, mutual support, collaborative initiatives – theneverendingstory (Cuqui Jerez, María Jerez, Cristina Blanco, Amaia Urra), El Club, Artea, Paz Rojo / vs. predominant individualism

critical practices related to the reflection:

• creating the space and conditions for theoretical and artistic reflections on practice / vs. production, market’s request
• Master en Práctica Escénica y Cultura Visual (Master in Performing Arts Practices and Visual Culture), University Alcalá de Henares; Pilar Lacasa, José A. Sánchez – distribution of the responsibility and knowledge, against commodification of education; time for reflection / vs. request to produce
• Artea – creating the context where you have time to reflect on practice
• El Club – sharing the knowledge, reflection of the process of collective work
• Carlos Marquerie – informal meetings with colleagues and friends, as a practice of sharing and communicating artistic process; ethical approach to artworks
• clear theoretical concepts – e.g. José A. Sánchez, identification of the three tendencies on the scene: ‘commotion’, ‘ludic’, ‘experimental’ / vs. two inherited ‘families’ in jargon / generally vs. common senses and doxa
• Research group on performance practice (lab and the project that is starting in Matadero) – Paz Rojo
• International Seminar on New Dramaturgies – José A. Sánchez, Óscar Cornago / vs. dramaturgy doesn’t exist as a study field, the artists don’t collaborate with dramaturges

critical discourses in/of medium and form of performance (theatre, dance)

• deconstruction of theatrical mechanisms and conventions – Cuqui Jerez, Maria Jerez, Juan Domínguez, Óskar Gómez Mata; work with the stereotypes and mechanisms of mass media and theatre; anti-mythic approach, ‘idiotic practice’
• work with time – ‘broken time’: Cuqui Jerez, ‘expanded time’: Juan Domínguez; questioning the ‘given time’, speed – capitalism, linear and condensed time – theatre
• ‘return of the real’ into theatre – Rodrigo Garcia, Angélica Liddell; intrusion of the real body on stage / vs. illusionism, fiction
• concepts of interdisciplinarity & dis-disciplinarity – meaning: inter-disciplinarity should lead to dis-disciplinarity / vs. disciplines and disciplining

critical terms & concepts (including conflicts and sometimes discussions around them)

• seriousness vs. playfulness, humor, idiocy
• collectivity, collaboration vs. individualism
• creating the context vs. personal (professional) career
• research vs. training
• reflection vs. production
• public talks and discussions
• ethics of work
• experimentation vs. tradition
• interdisciplinary, dis-disciplinarity vs. disciplines and disciplining
• global view, internationalism vs. the local
• continuity

Actors and agencies we should visit, talk to, etc. in order to develop the problematics and concepts above:

The list made during the working sessions comprises more than 40 items. Here is its summary (in alphabetic order):

• Amalia Fernández
• La Casa Encendida – Maral Kekejian (performing arts program; + El Club)
• Cuarta Pared – Javier Garcia Yague (+ festival Escena Contemporanea)
• Cuqui Jerez (+ theneverendingstory)
• Elena Córdoba
• Jaime Conde-Salazar Pérez (+ Continuum Live arts blog; Aula de Danza Estrella Casero de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares; Cairón)
• José Antonio Sánchez (+ Master en Práctica Escénica y Cultura Visual; Artea; International Seminar on New Dramaturgies)
• Juan Domínguez (+ In-Presentable, El Club)
• Monica Valenciano
• Museo Reina Sofia – Natalia Álvarez (performing arts program)
• Paz Rojo (+ research group on performance practice)
• Rodrigo Garcia
• La sala Triángulo
• Carlos Marquerie (+ teatro Pradillo, ethical approach to work)
• La Tabacalera
• Victoria Pérez Royo (Master en Práctica Escénica y Cultura Visual; Artea; Cairón)
• Óscar Cornago (+ Archivo virtual de artes escénicas, Artea; International Seminar on New Dramaturgies)