Raúl Nene Vargas Torres

An Impermanent Body

The aim of the workshop is to propose a methodology and devices for composition and creation. It is inspired by the historical form of the carnival and its relation to the grotesque. During the carnival period the usual prohibitions and restrictions that regulate social life are lifted, giving way to a kind of counterculture. In the carnival the body takes agency and expands to incorporate all its physiological, emotional and discursive needs.
By identifying and extrapolating the elements that constitute the carnivalesque and integrating them into our artistic practice, the workshop stimulates and explores the creative potential of our moving body – enabling us to experience the body in an unfinished, provisional state of constant ‘becoming’, oscillating between de- and reconstruction.
We will approach the world of the carnival and the grotesque by way of task-led, thematic exercises focusing on such themes as laughter, the erotic, disharmony, penance, the sacred and the profane et al., employing objects, texts, and above all movement. Within the frame of the workshop’s transversal activity, participants are invited to create little events, either improvised or fixed. Any specific expression, demonstration, cultural manifestation, ritual act, installation may qualify as an ‘event’. We give space to arbitrariness, intuition, uncertainty, causality, conservation of energy, metamorphosis.
We will reflect on the notion of the carnival as counterculture in the 21st century and try to perceive the carnivalesque in contemporary society.
Is there still a social need for subversion? Could the performing arts provide a space for it – or are we just talking about playful activity among friends?

Raúl Nene Vargas Torres’s biography:

Raúl Vargas Torres (1983) I am a Colombian pass-holder theater-maker, director and pedagogue based in Berlin. My artistic work is a trashy entanglement between body-mind-object movement, “whatever”, traditional circus and philosophy; from there, I explore and examine different alternatives passive-active, to keep up a creative and political life, amidst the fissure of capitalism and its art market.

As a solo performer I have created and directed different range of performances and events, out-door and in-door, from pure improvisations to set pieces, performing them in different, garages, bars, streets, alternative spaces and festivals around the world such as: Zürcher Theater Spektakel (CH), Festival Territori (CH), THEALTER 23 (HU), 1st Palestinian Circus Festival, MasQue (Fi), Trakya Kukla Festivali (TK), Festival International de Circo de Bogotá, PlusQ´Il (CH), Festspillene i Nord-Norge, Vårscene Fest (NO), Oxomatil (MX), Festival Territori (CH), amongst others.

Raúl, meaning me in third-person of the singular, has collaborated with different companies, Academics, directors, performers and choreographers, like: David Zambrano, Inés Rojas, Muro de Espuma, Gandini Juggling, Davide Giovanzana, Sophia Rodriguez, the sami Artist Camilla Theresa Karlsen, Richard Weihe, amongst others.

Simultaneously, I develop my upcoming Performance: Trinity or father is a clown, in collaboration with director Selina Thüring, the philosopher/dramaturg Mathieu Horeau and composer Ariel Schlichter.

Dates and times:
August 5-9
14:30 – 18:30

Price:
50 € registration fee
200 € total

Package deal:
In the same week Sophia Rodriguez is teaching in the mornings. You get a 15% discount for registering to both workshops.