David Espinosa / El Local E.C.
| Children under 12 admitted when accompanied by an adult | |
| Created, directed and performed by: | David Espinosa |
| Collaboration: | África Navarro, Carlos valverde and Carol Bonfim |
| Sound and music: | Santos Martínez / David Espinosa |
| Stage design: | Max Glaenzel / David Espinosa |
| Construction: | Ou / Barbara Glaenzel / Josep Iglesias |
| Creative manager: | Marta Oliveres - M.O.M. El Vivero |
| Producers: | El Local E.C., IF Barcelona and Festival Marionnettes du Neuchatel, with the support of the Government of Catalonia’s Department of Culture |
| Thanks to: | Carlos Aladro and Fina Cerdán |
“With a background in theatre and dance, this singular artist, born in Elche in 1976, has surprised the local and European performance world with shocking, paradoxical pieces”.Titeresante
Inspired by Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha, La triste figura is a performance installation about the use of imagination and how it is related to perception and meaning. The reader/spectator will explore the dichotomy between reality and fiction, the relationship between image and sound, the perception dysfunctions that lead to madness. A formal game that will enhance our ability to imagine while attempting to maintain that sense of humour so praised in Cervantes’ work. Connected to the idea of the polyphonic novel, the installation is characterised by the baroque and simultaneity, a worldview that interprets reality from several overlapping points of view, mixing vulgar language with the poetic, comedy with tragedy, philosophy with satire.
For La triste figura Espinosa built a scenic device to represent the journey of the main character, Alonso Quijano, as he descends into madness. A half sculpture, half model installation that shifts the perception Don Quixote had of reality onto the spectator. A sculpture that acts as the stage, plot and performance, which has been imagined as a great scenic vanitas (in painting, vanitas is a particular genre of still life that contains collections of highly symbolic objects. Used frequently in the Baroque period, the objects depicted are all symbols of the fragility and brevity of life, denouncing the relativity of knowledge and the vanity of the human race subject to the passage of time and death).
David Espinosa's work revolves around the idea of representation and of breaking the limits of the theatre, calling the stage into question and altering the equation of the elements that compose it. Casting a critical and ironic eye on society and the art world, each of Espinosa’s creations is an attempt to develop a formal game that surprises spectators, drawing them into his way of seeing the work, crudely exposing the piece’s mechanisms and statements. His personal work began by transcending the limits of body and speech, introducing technology as a performance tool, later replacing the physical presence of the actor with the use of the object.
Increasingly more interested in creating meaning through the relationship between form, light and sound, he has delved into the concept of showmanship by proposing devices that use precarious, low-tech methods to create sophisticated effects charged with theatricality. Toys for grown-ups –handmade and homemade– offer a unique experience in which the idle or recreational component is as valuable as the artistic discourse, following the punk motto “do it yourself” to introduce the spectator to contemporary creation and avoid the figure of the elite and inbred artist, and have been featured at many festivals and theatres on the international contemporary scene.
The spectator receives a scroll with instructions upon entering the venue to see La triste figura: a text that acts as a prologue and guide and a map that describes the parallels between the performance piece and the novel. Inside, the audience will find the image and sound devices which they can use to interact with the sculpture. This piece is from Espinosa’s Much Ado About Nothing, in which the artist simultaneously represents the complete works of William Shakespeare. Together with Mi Gran Obra, La triste figura closes out the Trilogía de Monigote The piece is also part of a new project, El Pentáculo de las artes, which will end in 2018 and includes five works on the concept of toys for grown-ups and performative sculptures.