Summary of the working sessions || Ana Vujanović and Marta Popivoda

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:24:10 +0000

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)

working session #4 || Victoria Pérez Royo

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:10:23 +0000

During the working session, Victoria was developing a theoretical systematization of the Madrid performing arts scene, directly addressing the issue of critical practices and discourses that appear and operate on it. Her approach was also subjective, but not personal. She comes from Madrid, but is based in Berlin, and is involved in few programs here (Master program and Artea).

……….

working session #3 || Isabel De Naverán

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:03:45 +0000

Isabel comes from Bilbao, and she is connected to the performing arts scene in Madrid only through a few programs (mostly, In-presentable and Artea). From this working session we have gotten a very partial and yet very detailed overview of the scene, i.e. overview of the part of the scene in which she is involved. On the other hand, this session was also important in order for us to understand how someone who is from Bilbao can and has opportunity to take part in the scene here.

working session #2 || Juan Domínguez

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:57:41 +0000

Juan has a long history at the scene as its prominent actor; he worked here already in the 80s, then left Madrid, and then has come back partially in recent years. His approach to the scene and its critical discourses was subjective and personal, and through the (his)tory of himself as performance maker (choreographer, dancer, programmer) he was telling us the (his)story of the scene – as they overlap in many aspects.

working session #1 || Catarina Saraiva

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:29:51 +0000

As someone who doesn’t come from Madrid, and who moved here only a year and a half ago, Catarina had made her own research based on a lot of interviews, before she had the working session with us. Therefore, what we got from this session is an as-objective-as possible (however, always subjective and interpretative) map of the scene, including an extensive list of ‘interesting’ people, events, and venues, as well as some terms (like two big ‘families’ of artists) that are used in the jargon of the scene.