Teatro Jovellanos and LABoral show the work of La Ribot in Gijón
The Art Centre will exhibit the video-installation ‘Despliegue’ between 8th and 20th June
'Despliegue', a still of the video-installation
The Teatro Jovellanos [Jovellanos Theatre] and LABoral have joined efforts to bring to Gijón the work by La Ribot, an artist who is considered to be one of the key names in contemporary dance in Spain. From Wednesday 8th until 20th June, 'Despliegue', a performance that takes the final form of a video-installation, will be exhibited in Plat0 at the Art Centre. On Friday 10th June, Jovellanos Theatre in Gijón will host the performance of 'Llámame Mariachi' [Call Me Mariachi], a work which involves a video for the first part in which the performers film the movement from the viewpoint of the body. In the second part, the three artists perform live on stage in a comic tone.
Ballet dancer, choreographer and visual artist, María Ribot (Madrid, 1962) has had a prolific international career, playing an essential role in the development of contemporary dance in Spain since the mid-8os. In 1991, this creator from Madrid embarked on a new course in her career creating stage works in the intersections of live arts, performance and video art. Humour and eccentricity are the distinctive characteristics in her work which spans a wide artistic field and questions the financial aspects of the performance and the marketing of the arts. La Ribot sets forth and challenges her own observations - the starting point involving the body, space, image and movement.
Her creative universe is marked by its diversity of influences and by the continuous transposition of the different means of expression and conceptual domains it passes through. In her choreographies, her body, which is almost always nude to strip it of all possible dramatic sense, comes to the fore.
THE WORKS
Despliegue' (2001)
10th-20th June 2011
PLACE: plat0 at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón
Video-installation composed of a projection on cardboard (DVD colour video with sound. 45’, 400 x 300 cm) and a plasma screen (DVD colour video with sound. 45’). Dimensions variable.
Edition: 2/3
Collection: MUSAC-Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León [Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla and León]
In 'Despliegue', the action is simultaneously recorded by two cameras: one which is fixed to the ceiling above the space where the action unfolds, and the other, held by the artist in her hand. Both cameras are parallel witnesses of an introspective process in which La Ribot fills her surroundings with different objects and performances which have formed a part of her series of actions 'Still Distinguished'. All of these elements are displayed over the entire length and width of a piece of cardboard (the same one on which the images are projected), creating a live stage which the action feeds on and which it is also a result of.
Through two opposing views –that of the spectator, identified with the directly overhead camera, and that of the artist, immersed in the actual performance space- the two contrary yet complementary parts in all processes of creation are brought together. La Ribot gains awareness of her own existence through the distinct elements which make up her personal environment, which are used to recreate her identity. She leads us into an enigmatic personal universe constructed from conceptual associations and the tensions that arise between the performance, dance and visual arts.
In the words of La Ribot, “I initially saw it as a compilation work but, over time, I realised that it could be a conceptually-uninhibited video-installation”, to present “a painting in the plastic sense of the word”. To achieve this, the artist uses the things that make up her universe -wigs, actions, colours, falls, cardboard and texts- which during the course of the performance “are converted into a multidimensional canvas”.
'Llámame mariachi' [Call Me Mariachi] (2009)
8th June, 2011
PLACE: Teatro Jovellanos, Gijón [Jovellanos Theatre]
Time: 20.30
Direction and choreography: La Ribot
Interpretation: Marie-Caroline Hominal, La Ribot and Delphine Rosay
'Llámame mariachi' has two parts. The first one shows a video work in which the performers film the movement from the viewpoint of the body. The camera, space, moving body, film and theatre are given shape before our eyes, dizzily relativizing our perception of space. The second section is presented in a comic tone and the three dancers appear sat in front of a desk laden with numerous papers, which they go about reading out loud alternatively with awful pronunciation, causing laughter among the public. Their slight movements are carried out in slow motion which makes them denser.
Further information on the work: www.teatrojovellanos.com
