(By Federico Amigo, special for Télam) The theatrical resource, the search to make reality more complex, anti-gender discourses, and stage representation were some of the axes that the Piel de Lava collective marked as part of its research process to reflect on of the aesthetics and politics of the new rights ahead of the presentation of “Parlamento”, his next project.
“What we saw when we began to investigate is that there were many stage procedures in today’s political situation,” summarized Elisa Carricajo, a member of the theater group along with Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa and Laura Paredes, and in the framework of one of the numerous activities of the tenth day of the Ballena 2023 Project, for the 40 years of democracy.
With Juan Laxagueborde as moderator and to the constant laughter of the participants in the Hall of Honor on the second floor of the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK), the table “Performing Arts: Everything that identifies us is being attacked” also revolved around the moment that crosses the cultural field, the challenges of independent spaces and also some learning that the commercial circuit delivers.
“The intention is not for people to come to confirm what they already know because if they don’t lose meaning. If we start to imitate Javier Milei, who is so performative, we lose,” Gamboa said about the “Parliament” proposal, to the one that they resisted several times in calling work and instead they chose “process”.
“Everything that identifies us is being attacked” is a phrase by Giorgia Meloni (Italian Prime Minister) of that process in which the Lava Skins are immersed and which started from an invitation from the Arthaus cultural center, located a few meters from Plaza de Mayo, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
The possibility of generating “Parliament” is precisely what allows them to investigate and talk about how to deploy themes such as neo-fascist strategies in the key of dramaturgical imagination.
“In that world of parliament there is also fiction. That is why the figure of the scoundrel appears and the mechanism of lying put in favor of politics, the idea ‘of saying anything is worth it,'” Correa evaluated in front of a very active audience. to intervene with questions and comments.
In order to understand part of the process that they go through when creating “Parlamento”, a proposal that is based on the thesis that in current politics there is an exacerbation of the stage, the actresses, directors and playwrights showed some of the videos that visualized to nurture the imagination. A deputy from the Spanish region of Andalusia throwing sand on the seat of the Parliament of that Spanish Autonomous Community, and the violent gesture of Cristian Ritondo at the end of a session in Deputies (in which, facing the president of the Chamber, Cecilia Moreau, joined his index finger and thumb in the shape of a circle and inserted the index of the other hand) were the two episodes that were shown on some screens in the room.
“What you see is that the performative enters. There is also a kind of bullying to the presidents of parliaments that generate a school situation where things like ‘shut up’, ‘don’t dialogue’ or this gesture by Ritondo that appears I haven’t seen since elementary school,” said Carricajo.
Meanwhile, Paredes stopped to analyze what generates a certain fascination in these speeches: “There are changes in speed, tones and a whole search for how to generate that empathy with those who listen to them and in the voters. It is difficult to understand why it works that kind of hypnotism and at the same time it’s interesting to see what mechanisms they use for this that at one point becomes addictive”.
For Gamboa, something complex is also happening in the face of the discourses and strategies of the new right, which they characterized as “anti-gender”: “There are moments that are right, there are things that they say in which they found a pragmatic solution, something very concrete.” , the actress maintained beyond understanding what is hidden behind those statements. “Nobody proclaims themselves as bad and that is the problem,” said Paredes to describe the dimension of the field that they seek to show and question.
“Neoliberalism crosses us all equally even if we don’t want to. We are dragged towards individualism even though that is not what we are looking for. It is a state of epoch in which one is producing hyperconnected and is also expressed in culture. This work is going to be the result of that same state. It is a particular moment to live and also to do plays”, stressed Correa at the table that was part of Proyecto Ballena 2023, a festival that is already heading towards the last 48 hours of this edition.
“All this staging of politics is not an exclusive phenomenon of the right, but it is becoming more and more colorful,” Carricajo described to emphasize that it is a time when the turn to the right is increasingly notorious.
In addition, the group that has accumulated more than 20 years of experience with proposals such as “Petróleo”, “Tren” or “Museo” and that grew up with the conviction of collective strength as a cultural expression, also reflected on the self-management nature of their projects .
“They are a great image of the imagination and the persistence of the imagination. The function of groups like you is to create other groups like you,” said Juan Laxagueborde, essayist, sociologist and occasional moderator of the debate.
“The problem with self-management is that sometimes it also becomes enslaving, but at the same time it is what sets us apart. The lack of resources makes us more creative,” said Paredes, while Gamboa remarked that “horizontality has long been militant ” and who find “in the group a relief”.
The members of the cultural group also reviewed the relationship with the commercial circuit and even highlighted certain issues that this world knows how to do. “The commercial theater system generates an audience that also goes to the theater to see independent works. There is something obviously imaginative there in that regard. You have to wonder why ours become closed circuits where many people don’t get to see us,” Carricajo said. .
As a watermark of Piel de Lava, Correa concluded that the link with the public is always thought of “as something that has to be festive”: “We are obsessed with having a good time when we do a play.”
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
