| Flores en las Cunetas |
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Work demonstration by Maite Tarazona Performance as part of Solo Situations Thu-Fri 6–7 March 2014, 7pm Laboratory Theatre Space Admission free, advance booking required: sekretariat@grotowski-institute.art.plTel. 71 34 45 320 Performance in Spanish, English, Basque and Polish This project started in Spain with a poppy and the gaze of an old man in a cemetery when he lowered his voice speaking about “what happened”. It was born from the need to know “what happened” during the Spanish Civil War, its aftermath and repressions, what happened to the normal people, the victims of the war, what happened to the ones who, besides losing the war, lost everything. It was born from the need to know why we do not speak about it. Why do we continue living as if nothing had happened? War happens, and this war happened to us. It was born from the need to speak out about it, to speak about the women, about the children, dismay in their eyes, innocent witnesses of a world falling apart. This project is about women; about women who, after losing everything, continued fighting to survive; about women who longed to die out of sorrow but kept on living to take care of their loved ones; about women who, after losing the war and their utopia, kept on struggling to survive in a new, post-war world in which they no longer had space to live, a world in which women were no longer full citizens but objects in the daily life of men, a world in which they were not allowed to mourn their dead or express their true beliefs, a world ruled by oppression and silence. The silence shaped their bodies and their souls. This journey/piece took me from Spain to Poland in my quest for a language that could help me to express with my body and voice what I could not express in words. In Poland, I found not only a language to speak with the body, but the living flesh of Europe. I witnessed Poland as the embodiment of a Europe in which the 1936 Spain was a spark of freedom before a explosion of darkness tore Europe to pieces, an explosion which still resonates in our bodies. “The war, the Spanish Civil War, all wars. A war that happened, a war that happened to us, a war that happened to us wherever we were.” Maite Tarazona * “Hundreds of thousands of souls still buried by the sides of the roads, by the walls of the cemeteries, by the rivers, by the wells, by the mass graves and mines.The gaze of Ophelia in a Europe that is bleeding out. A woman, thousands of women crying to speak out after decades of silence.” Maite Tarazona  Written, created and performed by: Maite Tarazona Directed by: Przemysław Błaszczak Dramaturgy: Maite Tarazona, Przemysław Błaszczak Movement consultant: Cécile Da Costa Vocal consultant: Ditte Berkeley Costumes: Maite Tarazona Light design: Przemysław Błaszczak Set design: Maite Tarazona, Przemysław Błaszczak Artistic collaborator and stage co-designer: Bartosz Radziszewski Artistic assistant: Miriam Ptak Scenery built by: Andrzej Walada, Piotr Jacyk, Krzysztof NawójPictures: Magda M±dra, Maite Tarazona, Przemysław Błaszczak Duration: 60 minutesSpecial thanks to Dariusz Kosiński, Jarosław Fret and the people from the Grotowski Institute The performance uses Ophelia’s lines from Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine (translated by Jacek S. Buras) and extracts of poems by Chantal Maillard and León Felipe. Maite Tarazona is an actress, researcher and electrical engineer. Born in La Rioja, Spain, she studied engineering and acting in Bilbao, Basque Country. She is currently living in Wrocław (Poland), where she is conducting research project based on silence and repressions during the Spanish Civil War. The Basque Government Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia (Diputación Foral de Bizkaia) awarded her a grant in acting for the academic years 2011–2014, with the Grotowski Institute as a centre of reference. Deeply interested in the connections between arts and science, memory and oblivion, voice and silence, Maite is a performer and researcher seeking a language in which to speak about what cannot be spoken, to write with the body, with the voice, what words are sometimes incapable of conveying. Przemysław Błaszczak is an actor who has been associated with the Grotowski Institute since 1995. From 1996 to 1999 he worked with Song of the Goat Theatre, where he performed in Song of the Goat – Dithyramb. Between 2002 and 2003 he created a solo performance, Ecco Homo. Since 2004, he has been an actor with Teatr ZAR, led by Jarosław Fret, the resident theater company of the Grotowski Institute. Przemek performs in the “Gospels of Childhood triptych” (Gospels of Childhood: Overture, Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide and Anhelli: The Calling). He is currently involved in the creation of Teatr ZAR’s new performance, Armine, Sister. In 2012 he performed in the premiere of Heiner Müller’s Mauser directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. Since 2005, Przemek has studied the Japanese martial art of aikido under Sensei Piotr Masztalerz (5th Dan). In 2011 he studied under Juba Nour Shihan (6th Dan) in Baja California, Mexico. He is currently training to become an aikido teacher. In 2005 he went to Japan, invited by Toshi Tushitori, where he practiced shintaido, a Japanese system that integrates voice and body through training based on traditional Japanese karate. He leads Studio Dwóch ¦cieżek, run as per of the BodyConstitution research programme of the Grotowski Institute. This work has been possible due to the support of the Grotowski Institute and a grant in acting from the Basque Government Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia (Diputación Foral de Bizkaia) for the academic years 2011–2014 with the Grotowski Institute as center of reference. Supported by Basque Government Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia (Diputación Foral de Bizkaia)  |