'Mejor que saludarse con los codos', by Fernando Rubio and Alfredo Ramos
Within the programming of
ÍDEM 2022. International Performing Arts Festival| Duration: | 4 hours |
First-ever presentation of Mejor que saludarse con los codos [Better than Bumping Elbows], an installation that creates a meeting point for talking about touch and skin, and above all for doing so through touch and skin. An itinerary involving a series of bathtubs. A shared intimacy, a relationship with our skin, with our own stories and with different materials.
We have just come through a pandemic that turned touch into a danger and prioritised spaces for relating to each other visually through screens. The pandemic has served to reinforce a society in which sight is our main medium for engaging with the world, our most important sense, while touch is rapidly falling to the bottom of the hierarchy of senses. So much so that we seem to be losing it.
This project explores the things that touch allows us to do and has allowed us to understand. Touch forms part of our experience of the world. It is the primary vehicle for retrieving our memories, the story that has gradually been written on our skin through the way in which it has touched and been touched.
Inside and outside seven bathtubs, a group of people follow a textual and sound itinerary to guide the experience we feel on our skin when it touches or is touched.
The proposal is completed with a multidisciplinary creative workshop.
Created and directed by:
- Fernando Rubio (Buenos Aires, 1975). Fernando has presented his work at different international theatre festivals, museums, art centres and public spaces in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United States and Uruguay. His most recent productions include Donde Empiezan las cosas que son importantes [Where the Things that Matter Begin]; El tiempo entre nosotros [The Time Between Us]; Decir afuera [Say Outside]; Todo lo que está a mi lado [Everything by My Side]; and Yo no muero, ya no más [I’m Not Dying, Not Anymore]. He has given creation seminars and performances at different universities and festivals, and his texts have been translated into English, German, Portuguese, Finnish, Greek, Dutch, Korean, Italian and French. He is also the director of the research and creation space El Jardín Sahel.
- Alfredo Ramos (Madrid, 1978). With a PhD in Politics from the Complutense University, Alfredo's research interests are participatory practices, new forms of curating in the performance arts, contemporary transformations of masculinities, and studies of touch and the skin. He is one of the driving forces behind the thought, culture and gender laboratory Un Estudio Propio. His most recent projects include the documentary theatre piece Máscaras, Mapas, Marcas [Mask, Maps, Marks] and his co-direction of the young Afrodescendant collective creation project 8 minutos [8 Minutes].
Installation and artist information
- Creation and direction: Fernando Rubio and Alfredo Ramos
- Stage and design collaboration: Marta Guedan
- Voice and performers: Alfredo Ramos and Maria Bernardo
- Assistant director: María Bernardo
- Recording: Radio studio at La Casa Encendida
Duration of each session: 50 minutes
Warning: You must bring a bathing suit and take your shoes off to enter the installation. We recommend you come with your bathing suit already on, under your clothes. If this this not possible, you can use the toilets on the ground floor. You can also bring a sarong. Lockers will be provided.
Accessibility: People with disability who need specific technical or personal assistance must inform us when they buy their ticket, at least 5 days before the event. You can tell us about your needs in person at the Information Point at La Casa Encendida, by calling 91 506 21 80 or by writing to [email protected].
