Performance in Contemporary Times: Processes, Communities, and Audience

• Autores: David Rodríguez Solás
• Localización: The Routledge Hispanic studies companion to twentieth and twenty-first century Spain: ideas, practices, imaginings / coord. por Eduardo Ledesma, Luisa Elena Delgado, 2025, ISBN 978-1-032-96468-3, págs. 586-598
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In the first two decades of this century in Spain, performance underwent an intense process of redefinition, experimentation, and institutionalization that challenged its place within the performing arts. Traditional distinctions between performance (known in Spanish as artes vivas) as a form of the real, and theatrical performance as a representation of a reality, are no longer justifiable. Performance has evolved to consider the audience as part of the communicative process, creating the possibility for them to assemble, and therefore to participate in the artistic process (Cornago, Ensayos 46). In addition, performance has been affected by and contributed to the political debates that ensue from 15-M. Audiences, practitioners, and producers responded to the need to assemble by fostering a community that used to convene in performance spaces such as La Casa Encendida, Matadero and CA2M in Madrid and Mercat de les Flors, MACBA, and Graner in Barcelona. This chapter analyzes the changes in perception that facilitated a recognition and institutionalization of performance. Beside the mentioned performance spaces, the author surveys key practitioners that identify with performance, but simultaneously work in other realms of performing arts such as dance, dramatic writing of the body, and performance art. Some of the figures featured include La Ribot, Juan Domínguez, El Conde de Torrefiel, Vértebro, and Los Torreznos. Moreover, this chapter expands the consideration of authorship by examining the curatorial work of festivals such as Sâlmon< (Barcelona, 2012-), and the former festivals in Madrid In-presentable (2008–2012) and Escena Contemporánea (2000–2013). This approach produces a more complex analysis of institutionalization that expands the geographical scope.