Luis A Lara Malvacías                       
 

B - 2016 

 

Originally Commissioned by: La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Premiered at: The Club at La MaMa. New York. May 19th, 20th, 2016                         

 

A different version of this work was performed at: Radial System. Berlin, Germany. July 9th, 2016.

Commissioned by: Sasha Waltz & Guests Radial System                       

 

Created and Performed by: Luis A Lara Malvacías & Jeremy Nelson

Costumes, Set and Props: Luis A Lara Malvacías  

Music and Sound: Ivo Bol

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B (as in Becoming or the constant transformation of someone or something) was the first duet created as part of the large-scale multi-disciplinary project, titled From A to Z. Every second we age, our body changes; we are constantly re-assembling ourselves, becoming through time. The research for B as well as for the whole project From A to Z has been influenced by Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of “assemblages” and “becoming”, in which imitation and analogy are removed to find a new way of being.

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Half-way through the piece, our composer Ivo Bol, read the text "Emporio celestial de conocimientos benévolos" (English: Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge), a fictitious taxonomy of animals described by the writer Jorge Luis Borges, in his essay “El idioma analítico de John Wilkins” (English: The Analytical Language of John Wilkins) in order to “illustrate the arbitrariness and cultural specificity of any attempt to categorize the world.”  The list divides all animals into 14 categories, and reading the complete list created a more complex layered context for the piece.

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Borges' Spanish                                English translation

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pertenecientes al Emperador          those belonging to the Emperor

embalsamados                                  embalmed ones

amaestrados                                      trained ones

lechones                                            suckling pigs

sirenas                                               mermaids (or sirens)

fabulosos                                           fabled ones

perros sueltos                                    stray dogs

incluidos en esta clasificación.         those included in this classification

que se agitan como locos.                those that tremble as if they were mad

innumerables                                     innumerable ones

dibujados con un pincel finísimo      those drawn with a very
de pelo de camello.                           camel hair brush

etcétera                                              et cetera

que acaban de romper el jarrón.      those that have just broken the vase

que de lejos parecen moscas.          those that from afar look like flies