«There are threads that do not cut even when they want to. There are threads that do not let go even when they hurt.»
Matilde J Ciria
CONCEPT
Singulto is inspired by a personal story about agony and death, and by the invisible threads that bind us when freedom should arrive. By the tangles we create with love that cause unnecessary suffering.
The singultus — the hiccup — is the body’s last convulsion before letting go. An involuntary movement, between life and death, belonging to neither of the two worlds.
This piece is an improvisation built in the moment between three artists: movement, sound and image. Nothing is fixed. The only score is mutual listening and the underground space of Espacio en Blanco.
In this case the photographer does not capture moments for remembrance; rather, the photographs he takes are projected live in the room, creating a persistent memory of some of the moments lived. During part of the performance his flash is even the only lighting in the theatre. Generating the memories that the spectator themselves treasures.
Part of the Ciclo Danza Cruda.
GUEST ARTISTS
On sound — Simone Tederoca (UNSUI): Italian producer and performer based in Madrid; his music flows like water among dreamlike landscapes, mysterious atmospheres and insistent rhythms.
unsuimusic.net
On image — Fernando Ortega Gorrita: Photographer and visual artist whose gaze captures what the body does when it believes no one is watching.
fernandoortegagorrita.com
SYNOPSIS
«My grandmother lay in agony for months, while my mother and her sister wept over the imminent death of their mother. —Don’t abandon us— they said. —Don’t leave us alone— they stammered.
And my grandmother held on, stoically. Connected to too many tubes and cables. Suffering every day and every night. Being more machine than life. But she would not abandon her daughters in that moment of need and misery.
That night my grandmother died. That night we could all rest.»
Singulto is about the connections between life and death. About the invisible threads that bind us as mothers, fathers, sons and daughters of the world and of time. And about how some of these threads knot and tangle, making snarls that cause unnecessary pain.
Long life to life. Long death to death.
ON IMPROVISATION
This piece does not exist before it begins. There is no score, no rehearsal, no possible repetition. What happens on stage is born from the real encounter between the artists in that specific space and moment — from mutual listening, from shared risk, from the presence of an audience that is also part of what happens. Each performance is a unique event that cannot be reproduced. What you see tonight has not existed before and will not exist afterward.
GALLERY
ARTISTIC CREDITS
Movement: Matilde J. Ciria
Sound: Simone Tederoca (UNSUI)
Image: Fernando Ortega Gorrita
Associated workshop: ni.butoh: BREATH
Jam: El Jardín de las Delicias — Alientos Divinos
Venue: Espacio en Blanco, C/ Mira el Sol 5-7, Madrid
Classification: Butoh / Performance / Improvisation