This project is focussed on observing the way in which a synthesis of facts is constructed as a version. The conceptual departure point to approach this idea will be to summarize the trajectory of a person's life searching for a possible pattern that could simultaneously show an scenic result in relation to the chronology of its process.
This piece will be developed during 2009 in a format that so far I envisage as a piece that is half documentary and half live performance on a stage. Hereby I made a resume of the issues in relation to my pursuits for the project's development in terms of format as well as working plan.
Motivation and project's goal
As a working strategy I use to departure from concrete issues of observation to enter the theme that each piece makes its way around. In this particular case the trigger is the idea of self-invention through time, or in another words the construction of events made about ourselves of our trajectory in time.
I want to zoom into a very specific territory of memory in which this trajectory in time allows replacement and padding of new elements within it.
I assume memory as a transport for imagination, as something that lives with our interests and with them it changes a place in which text and subtext overlaps among forgotten and recreated information making new combinations of probably similar things.
For this piece I want to look at the context of this translation from thoughts to facts, specifically on how information is retrieved from the memory to progressively build a version of things, a version that is of course, mediated by language.
I normally work with text that is produced during the process of shaping the idea of each concept, let us say out of interviews- conversations I had with people I choose to work at each given moment. It doesn't necessarily mean that the piece will be a monologue by the end, but since I am interested on looking at ways of summarizing events, working with text gives a structure to organize the content.
In previous projects I have worked in with the same way of constructing blocks of content partially based on documentary material as well from other sources on the subject I am working on. In this case I propose to document the working sessions on video as a following up on the chronology of the process to possibly use it later as a complementary element of the live performance. The video has the function of summarizing the process of summarizing.
As a goal in perspective for this project I wish to be able to find a theatrical format that addresses the viewers in a particular way, engaging their attention on assembling live action from the performer and video material from the process.
Working plan
Project to be developed in three stages:
Stage 1: Research at Centre de Creacio Lanimal a L'esquena/ Spain.
This research has the purpose of making a first approach my ideas inviting two artists (Beatriz Fernandez & Rodrigo Pardo) to work together with me in test of a basic set up of this concept (still in construction). The goal of this residency period is to define the possible form for this piece to develop further.
The research will take place in 10 days in the month of August 2008 at the studios of Centre de Creacio Lanimal a L'esquena/ Celra/Girona. Script & storyboard for the piece to be worked out after the results of this first approach.
Stage 2: Concept's realization (On negotiations with a production house/ theatre that can host the realization of the project / Victoria/BE-season 2009). People involved at this phase: Beatriz Fernandez/ Carmen Torrent/ Cecilia Vallejos.
Stage 3: Piece presentation at Festival Permanent Des Arts Contemporains /Les grandes traversees (Bordeaux/ France) on Nov. 2008 within the framework of work in progress presentations curated by the choreographer Elizabeth Estaras. (Still to be confirmed).
Productional aspects in a short term (2008):
Artist in residence: Centre de Creacio Lanimal a L'esquena/ Spain. August 2008/ http://www.lanimal.org/
Support for the first phase of this process: La Porta/Bcn/Spain
