Dramaturgy ———— for a conference
Could we create an instruction manual to dictate a conference? Is there a narrative prior to the construction of any speech?
In this curatorial project, a philosopher/thinker is invited to design a series of instructions to impart a conference. This singular manual formulates a kind of dramaturgy, diverse steps that are aimed to be followed for the approach to any subject. Following its rules, artists, thinkers, performers, specialists in diverse realities and disciplines, are invited to develop a performative conference and complete their talk.
This project was ideated by the artist and curator Matías Umpierrez.
Dramaturgy
for a conference
I Edition
Thinker invited
for the creation of the manual:
(Spain-France)
Artists invited for the conferences/performances: Roberto Jacoby (Visual Artist, Argentina) Mariana Obersztern (Theater Director, Argentina), Juan Onofri Barbato (Choreographer and performer, Argentina) , Tomás Espina (Visual Artist, Argentina) y Paloma del Cerro (Musician, Argentina).
This project, ideated and curated by Matías Umpierrez, was presented in its first edition during the III International Dramaturgy Festival, and in the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires, in coproduction with Plataforma Fluorescente and with the support of the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional del Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural (Argentina).
About the manual
commissioned
to Paul B. Preciado:
Who speaks? What do they say? Is it mandatory to know the speaker’s gender to be able to understand what they say? Is it possible to listen to someone whose gender we don’t know? What is the relation between what is said and the gender of the enunciator? Who listens? Is it possible for us to listen resigning our own gender position? These are questions made by Paul B. Preciado at the time of configuring the instructions.
Intentionally increasing or decreasing the linguistic markers and cultural codes of gender production, the manual constructed by Preciado proposes to produce a cognitive emancipation of the viewer. The question then becomes about who is looking and who is listening.: Why repeat the gender that has supposedly been assigned to me? Would it be possible to introduce change variables? Does the world change if I change gender?
About the invited artists
for the lectures/ performances
of the first edition:
Juana Onofri Barbata
o Juan Onofri Barbato
This performative conference co-created from the manual of the philosopher Paul B. Preciado and the hackneyed concerns of the choreographer Juana Onofri Barbata, invites the public to ask themselves: what is “Danzo Contemporáneo”? Through a series of drifts, Juana puts her body at the service of the “Danzo” opening the dance floor, bottles of alcohol and secret files, which try to elucidate the mystery that provokes them.
Credits:
Text: Juan Onofri Barbato
y Carolina Stegmayer / Performer: Juan Onofri Barbato / Controls:
Carolina Stegmayer
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, coproduced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires y has the support of Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural
Tomassa Espin
o Tomás Espina
Tomassa Espin still does not know what his talk will be about. It may be that they talk about what they always talk about; of their parents, exile, the school of Fine Arts. Or maybe not, just taking a drawing or clay modeling class while cooking a feast for their lecturers.
Credits:
Texts: Tomás Espina, Natalia Di Cienzo y Roberto Espina / Conference by: Natalia Di Cienzo y Tomás Espina
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, coproduced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires y has the support of Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural
Mario Bersztern
o Mariana Obersztern
Mariana Obersztern notices that they ask her to give herself completely to an unknown voice. Strictly speaking, it is not a voice, but how can you call a foreign thought, expanded in a fabric of rules that you have to lodge in your body? Also, why would you? Why would you let a compilation of instructions that are not yours command you? Refuses. She would never lend herself to letting herself be swung here and there like a little boat.
Credits:
Dj: Gastón Pérsico / Illumination: Gonzalo Córdova / Video: Mariana Obersztern / Edition: Ian Kornfeld / Acting Collaboration: Valentina Pagliere y Guadalupe Sanz
Aristic Attendance: Julia Perette / Dramaturgy and direction: Mariana Obersztern / Camera Live: Nicolás Miranda / Work on field: Mariana Obersztern, Julia Perette y Nicolás Miranda / Thanks to: Laura Santos, Abril Suarez and the boys in the construction site.
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, coproduced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires y has the support of Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural
Berta Jacobs
o Roberto Jacoby
He was born in 1944. Most of his works – between partying and social research – revolve around the dematerialization of art and the invention of new forms of life. He composed dozens of songs for the rock group Virus. Starting in 1998, he carried out several experiments in social networks for artists and non-artists, such as Boladenieve.org.ar, Chacra99, Proyecto Venus, as well as other collaborative projects such as Ramona magazine and CIA (Canal de Interferencias Artísticas). The book Desire is born from collapse (2011) was published on his work.
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, coproduced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires y has the support of Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural.
Dramaturgy
for a conference
II Edition
Thinker invited
for the creation of the manual:
Eyal Weizman
(United Kingdom / Israel)
Einat Weizman
(Israel)
Artists invitades for the conferences/performances: Mallika Taneja (India), Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (Canada), Mamela Nyamza (South Africa), Erna Omarsdottir (Island).
This project, ideated and curated by Matías Umpierrez, is going to be presented in June-July 2023 in the city of Düsseldorf (Germany) produced by Asphalt Festival in coproduction with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, and in collaboration with the Theater der Welt Festival 2021 and Plataforma Fluorescente, financed by German Federal Cultural.
About the manual
commissioned
to Eyal Weizman & Einat Weizman:
How much documents can tell? What are its limits? Can evidence lie? How to understand and differentiate fake from truth, documentary from fiction? With the manual Negative Evidence, Eyal Weizman and Einat Weizman provide a ‘grammar ofaction’ seeking to invigorate the practice of documentary theatre today.
About the invited artists
for the lectures/ performances
of the second edition:
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
I worked with my long-time collaborator, Jamie Griffiths, to create our version of Dramaturgy For A Conference. Our creation is called Pollution Lurks Within the Earth. In my speech, I juxtaposed the manifesto with the current situation we face here in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, with the contamination of our drinking water. Many indigenous communities in Canada suffer from contaminated water. Iqaluit is the largest community in Nunavut and suffers from deteriorating infrastructure, all stemming from historical, racist and colonial implications. Jamie and I created a 3D dome as a “screen” on which our documents are projected.
Credits:
Writer and performer: Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory / Video artist: Jamie Griffiths.
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, coproduced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires y has the support of Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural
Mamela Nyamza
Mamela’s work is entitled “GROUNDED”. The meaning of this concept: “grounded” is manifold: it has both negative and positive meanings in our social life. Positively and verbally, “grounded” can mean stability, reliability, moral compass and self-esteem. Negatively and actively, grounded can mean punishment, confinement, banning and segregation/apartment. The paper therefore describes the situation in South Africa: where its democracy appears to be in good working order, but in reality has small cracks that are not easy to see, leading to significant dangerous and sometimes fatal consequences. The question to be asked about these cracks: are they historical (apartheid-era system) or are they the legendary/popular/current cracks?
Credits:
Director, choreographer and performer: Mamela Nyamza / Digital and videography: Kathy Van Denberghe / Videography: Ayanda Msiza / Featured Artist: Amkele Mandla
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, co-produced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires and supported by Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural.
Erna Ómarsdóttir
Over countless generations, society has organised itself by establishing an active, determining part and a passive, adapting part, a key principle: man and woman. Following this principle, the second of the two parts is the one that is subdued and shaped by the male hands in the world: the female body as a form that adapts to the male silhouette. In her work, Erna explores the centuries-old conception of the female role: how has constant abuse been inscribed on the body of women or people read as such? Her performance is an attempt to find an expressive way to present the results of this research.
Credits:
Concept, choreography, text, song, filming and artistic direction: Erna Ómarsdóttir and Valdimar Jóhannson.
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, co-produced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires and supported by Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural.
Mallika Taneja
Many years have passed since her disappearance. For many years afterwards, too many people did not even talk about her…. neither with each other nor to each other. The reasons are not fully understood… all that can be said is that perhaps… it was all too difficult. She is totally out of the ever-growing world archive of the web. She is only present in the memory of those left behind. They too have forgotten. What they remember now, for the first time after 28 years, is what has been gathered here. Fragments of their memories have been distributed around you for you to find. They are of varying lengths and have been placed at different points in the park. They carry many people inside them… who speaks, who listens…. And then, there are the myriads of what will be evoked as you walk through the fragments.
Credits:
With Sudha Thapliyal, Sunanda Achar, Nandini Guha Rajagopal, Hansa Thapliyal, Geetika Thapliyal, Suhasini Taneja / Song: Traditional lullaby in Kannada performed by Sudha Thapliyal/ Visual design: Yashas Chandra / Concept and direction: Mallika Taneja.
This project is a production of Plataforma Fluorescente & Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia, coproduced by the 12 Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires y has the support of Centro Cultural Recoleta, Instituto Nacional de Teatro and Mecenazgo Cultural
Dramaturgy
for a conference
III Edition
Thinker invited
for the creation of the manual:
Pedro G. Romero
(Spain)
Invited artists for the conferences/performances: Niño de Elche (interdisciplinary artist and ex-flamenco) Rocío Molina (choreographer and iconoclastic dancer), Mercedes Peón (composer of cultural self-esteem), Antonio Molina “El Choro”.
This project, conceived and curated by Matías Umpierrez, was premiered in Valladolid, Spain, in March 2023 in a co-production with Meetyou Valladolid/Teatro Calderón de Valladolid, and in September 2023 in the program of the Ciclo Flamenco, melancolías y anhelos, in Seville, Spain.
About the manual
commissioned to
Pedro G. Romero:
In the manual of this third edition, Pedro G. Romero wonders what the vernacular, the popular, the identity, the folkloric, the subaltern, or if you will, to put it in silver, what “the Spanish” can be, whether Andalusian or Valladolid, Catalan or Asturian, Basque-French or Galician-Portuguese, Moorish, Jewish, gypsy or black American.
About the invited
artists for the lectures / performances
of the third edition:
Niño de Elche
Canto a lo gitano
The singing in today’s gypsy style is composed of the gypsy, anachronistic singing of Manuel Torre; English greyhounds and fighting roosters; the dark Spain of Darío de Regoyos and José Gutiérrez-Solana; the toxic and schizophrenic little gypsy from Madrid by David Pielfort; the landscape of a hanged dog by Pedro G. Romero; the gypsy touch of the Alicante guitarist Yerai Cortés; the tapping and knuckle-drumming of men as in the figures of Alonso Berruguete and Juan de Juni by Vicente Escudero; the castanets of Lucero Tena; a little room or a cell where tientos or pop songs are sung; the drumbeats of Eric Jiménez that bleed like the erotic body of a wooden Christ; a split eye, a free saeta thanks to God, Galician style, an Asturian song, Dieguito de Morón and his atonal anarchy; fandangos from the Levante; the terror of death and its trumpeting sound; a bagpipe crying over a loss; the soleá of Juan Rodríguez Cervilla,
a fandango by Gloria and Angélica Liddell; an ex-flamenco, small bells heralding the souls of the departed; clapping with songs from Jerez, Cádiz, and Navarra; life like a video game; the singers as Spain’s brand; a Peruvian cajón, an archive recording, theater, the violence of cante jondo, Israel Galván and his dancing machines, a metronome; Valladolid and Valladolor; the scratch on the guitar by Raül Refree; two stabs over heartbreak; a word or two in Valencian; Ocaña’s petenera; a rapper cheering, Tomás de Perrate and his dark sound; the ever-present poetry of Federico García Lorca; the creaks of Marco Serrato; some zombies, a glass of wine, a computer, two lines of bad cocaine, the mysterious ecstasy of the forbidden; YouTube, Xvideos, a wide-brimmed hat, the chant of any popular song, no lecturer, and three faggots.
Rocío Molina
Lo inefable
“Oh the bag on the bus, oh the bus, my bag is gone! Those heads, those ways of holding on wildly, all those things. Nobody moves, anymore. Not an eyelash. Ole… smell it. Stand there, feeling it from the chest, from the thorax! Smell the music, smell it, taste it. You have to caress the art more. Take that dung that’s dripping between your fingers. Let’s project.
Everything is a balance. And now… to the heart! Ba bump! Your whole body, your leg, your knee, your whole body dances, my love. On the tip of your toes, in your entrails, in your heart. The peace of the dance, the tranquility, the freedom. Thank you very much and may love be with you always. Ole, stay there. Ba bump, ba bum!”
*Literal transcriptions of expressions used by flamenco artists to teach their students.
LO INEFABLE (The ineffable) is an archive of interferences between different languages related to “flamenco”; a scenic exercise that propitiates, by contagion, sensitive connections between apparently incompatible codes.
A theoretical text, a footboard, a gesture, a judicial sentence, journalistic reviews, song lyrics, breathing, attire… intervene with each other, highlighting the tensions between signifiers and meanings when describing an artistic experience. Lo inefable tries to pronounce with words and with the body that which cannot be said.
Mercedes Peón
Desaparecer
There is a non-world where creation is collective, where what we call art emerges from the people, from the encounter, from being in community. In that non-world, collective trances are generated as absolute presence and resounding moment. Without theaters, without stages, without audience. Desaparecer (To desapear) is a scenic proposal that explores the tension between these two paradigms.
Photos Mercedes Peón:
authored byMaider Jimenez
Antonio Molina El choro
Arza, Teoría de lo espontáneo
This lecture / performance was premiered in Seville as part of the program Flamenco, melancolías y anhelos, curated by Rocío Molina, and developed at the Centro de creación La Aceitera and the Sala B of the Teatro Central.
