The question that is the title for this new piece that the Galician creator is now bringing us, seems to be the logical continuation of her previous work from 2019: Imaginé cinco cuerpos y ninguno era el mío (I Imagined Five Bodies and None of Them were Mine). If none of the bodies were Janet’s, then… Where is Janet? We are no small number who have had an almost mystical relapse into our bodies (to say it with Santiago Alba Rico) during this global crisis that has carried on endlessly. Relying on our bodies means to inhabit the space that we occupy and involves an effort of recognition. It is likely that uncomfortable questions bubble up to the surface. Janet Novás found herself with a body tired of the exposure required by stage life.

This review exercise required ‘extreme surrender’, as the creator said in her own words. ‘As a consequence, I needed to change the way that I could keep approaching creation.’ And the change was based on starting from doing it with an exhausted anatomy, with a devastated corporality… in order to explore new ways of coexisting with herself, more friendly and more loving ways. ‘I resolved to invert my gaze, to cast it outside so that my body could become the observer of the landscape.’ From there it is possible to kickstart the machine again to keep investigating its ever-present themes: identity, energy and ritual. ‘Starting from this place of exhaustion, the desire arose in me to create a work that revolved around the theme of healing and caring. I encouraged myself to inhabit a universe that was effort free and let the void and silence be manifested, along with everything we’ve stopped perceiving because of all the constant noise. A need for me to find that which is essential, what keeps us alive despite everything.’

Minimalist and fragile, like the question from which everything emerged: Where is Janet? Is she more in her body than in her desires? Is she in the void more than in plenitude? Where is Janet?