BALADA CORPORAL
2010, Performance cycle in four parts
Balada Corporal speaks about the continuity of becoming, the difficulties of real encounters unleashing the physical boundaries of the body surface, and transformation through concrete communication – physical, psychological, verbal and non-verbal. We gather to re-awaken what is constitutional to all humans: the expressive power of body and language. These shall help to overcome the actual frozen state of being – not as a matter of nostalgia, but rather to ingrain poetry into life by re-evaluating the necessity of honest, direct and sincere human interchange. There are moments when we live every encounter as a danger to our own integrity and hide behind a fortress of cynical words that lead inevitably to an unwilling silence. It is a silence that one discovers only once it has already penetrated to destroy, to shut up, and to refuse the existence of an inhabited interior world. Behaving in this way, we end up forgetting that which is constitutional to all of us – the expressive power of our body language. We compromise its primordial treasure, the fundament of our universal identity, and move far away from the others by corrupting the recognition of our own selves. As we forget that it is only the others who help us to unveil the unknown parts of ourselves, we lose the precious gift of the necessary community with the other.
The performance cycle in four parts has been developed and presented at VestAndPage's South America tour in 2010/11, with stations in Caracas (Solid Body – Emotional Body), Valparaíso (Liquid Body – Political Body), Valdivia (Aerial Body – Spiritual Body) and Buenos Aires/Vitoria, ES (Fragile Body – Private Body).
BALADA CORPORAL I: Solid Body – Emotional Body
UNEARTE Universidad Experimental de las Artes, Caracas, VE
On the occasion of 5th World Encounter of Body Arts, curated by Ana Moreno
October 2010
Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, CL
On the occasion of DEFORMES Biennial of Performance Art, curated by Gonzalo Rabanal
October 2010
EMBA Escuela Carlos Morel, Buenos Aires, AR
On the occasion of Zonadeartenaccion, curated by Gabriela Alonso and Nelda Ramos
November 2010
Homero Masseno Gallery, Vitoria, BR
On the occasion of Trampolim_Platform for Live Art, curated by Marcus Vinicius and Rubiane Maia
January 2010
Gradisca d'Isonzo, IT
On the occasion of OMISSIS Festival of Performing Arts
July 2011
The Substation Theater, Singapore
On the ocassion of R.I.T.E.S. Rooted in the Ephemeral Speak, curated by Lee Wen
November 2011
Photographs by Sergio Prucoli, David von Blohn and Aisha Ryannon Pagnes
[Balada Corporal I is] a work of high formal quality and cultural interest. I believe in the essential: the artistic representation on support is outdated, now the image comes to life and leaves for the world. Now it is directly inscribed on the bodies of those who watch over the living flesh."
Prof Jorge Michell, University of Chile, Ojo de Buey Magazin
BALADA CORPORAL II: Liquid Body – Political Body
Club Fabrica, Valparaiso, CL
On the occasion of DEFORMES Biennial of Performance Art, curated by Gonzalo Rabanal
October 2010
Photographs by Daniel Blohn. Video by Gisela Hochuli
BALADA CORPORAL III: Aerial Body – Spiritual Body
MAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Valdivia, CL
On the occasion of DEFORMES Biennial of Performance Art, curated by Gonzalo Rabanal
October 2010
Video and stills by Alvaro Pereda Roa
BALADA CORPORAL IV: Fragile Body – Emotional Body
CCEBA Centro Cultural de Espana, Buenos Aires, AR
On the occasion of Zonadeartenaccion, curated by Gabriela Alonso and Nelda Ramos
November 2010
Homero Masseno Gallery, Vitoria, BR
On the occasion of Trampolim_Platform for Live Art, curated by Marcus Vinicius and Rubiane Maia
January 2010
OMISSIS Festival of Performing Arts, Gradisca d'Isonzo, IT
July 2011
Photographs by Gabriela Alonso and Silvia Profumi | Studio14
[In Balada Corporal IV] Stenke and Pagnes bring the spectator to witness, in a sort of voyeuristic circus, their agreements, encounters and problematics within an action that doesn’t allow to feel left outside. There is this constant fear of an accident in the air. Panic, yes, but at the same time, there is the urging necessity to not lose one single detail of the movement. Just as if we watch a trapeze artist falling from the heights into the arms of this partner. VestAndPage don’t work at heights. Vertigo comes from elsewhere.
Santiago Cao in Performances in Closed Spaces as Shared Intimacy, Buenos Aires