The prefix ‘co-’ means gathering, union, company, cooperation. While immersed in the “solitude” of the researcher and the writer, I realised all the activities around me start with the same /kɒ/ sound. These words are joined together by their starting /kɒ/ and, to me, they seem to become the same thing; in essence, they all relate to meeting in space or time.
Some months ago, in a conversation with Chrysa, she suggested that since now everything is upside-down it could be a good moment to reflect on the indispensable aspects of each one’s practices. And how these essentials deal with the current situation. Badly, I thought… Because I could say proximity is a keystone for me.
My readings of La resistencia íntima and La penúltima bondad by Josep María Esquirol have reinforced the belief that my approach to dance searches for the closeness between bodies. Proximity also means, for me, caring for simple acts like being present, observing, not producing for the sake of producing, paying attention to memory, dialogue or walking as ways of searching for meaning.
This time together will be about maps, oracles, orality, tradition, rituality, letters, contemporariness, sacredness, belief, critique, books, notebooks, anatomical models, brushes and inks, lighting paraphernalia, lack of maillots…
I am extremely well accompanied by
Mar Rodríguez Valverde, who is always by my side, writing backwards with her left hand and bringing back the body when I forget it
Álvaro Cantero Sanz, who translated the letters, proofreads my texts and supports me if unsteady
Annika Boholm as Ottavia, whose presence, writing and references have become alchemy
Azahara Ubera, Natalia Jiménez Gallardo, Roberto Martínez and Sam Savage, who have been my conversation partners while wondering about the situatedness of my practice and other big questions
Martin Hargreaves, who ignited the desire of writing letters
Alice Chauchat, who follows this practice attentively
Julio León Rocha, who converted each letter in Spanish to an audio experience
Jesús Barrera, who takes care of the letters and their mediation in Un gato en bicicleta, which is our collective home in Seville
Mercedes Jaén Ruiz, who put the books which constitute the epistolary in order and did their layout
Último Mono Ediciones, who published the epistolary
This practice is also supported by
Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
Instituto de la Cultura y las Artes de Sevilla (ICAS)
And, as always, the family.