The set is a public lavatory.
The symbols on the doors become animated characters who initiate a debate, and as they question what they represent they invite us to consider gender stereotyping and the definitions of what is identified as masculine or femenine. The WC is transformed into an intimate space for philosophical musings and a hiding-place in which the deepest secrets are revealed.
Subject proposal:
WhiCh is a strong critique of gender clichés rooted in our collective memories and the direct associations we make by linking the adjective ‘masculine’ with male biological gender and ‘femenine’ with that of women.
The piece analyses and evaluates the pain and confusion we experience by having to consider this set of absurd and relative ideas as transcendental absolutes. The director’s intention is to turn a conventional and almost grotesque space such as the lavatory into a dreamlike and poetic landscape: the beatiful contradiction of transforming the scenario – area of maximum exposure – into a toilet, a place for intimate retreat.
It’s like leaving the toilet door open for a while, letting the audience in to discover some of the secrets we keep there.
Virginia Gimeno Folgado studied Classical and Contemporary Dance at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, and made her debut as a dancer at the Liceu Theatre when it reopened after the fire. Since then she has performed on the best-known stages around the world, in high-level choreographic works by renowned stage directors. As of 2005 she also began teaching students and professional dance companies.
Fascinated ever since she was a child by the study of human thinking, Virginia found in the study of traditional Hatha Raja Yoga a new way to deepen and add to her career in performance arts.
In 2015 she decided to begin her own work and created the Adoctrinats project, in which she managed to bring together on stage artists with lifelong careers in performance and complete novices for the pieces Ocho pasos para una coreografía- Patañjali para todos los públicos and L’1 del 10.
As of 2015 the company became established as Adoctrinades, co-producing the piece Arrels with visual artists from Oniolab, a show that premiered at the Ciudad de Barcelona Awards 2019; and WhiCh 20 (the 50’ version will premiere in 2020 co-produced by Festival de Danza Quinzena Metropolitana and Antic Teatre)
As a performer, Virgina is fascinated by the work of onstage presence and by the search for emotional states through the connection between body, heart and mind. Her desire as a choreographer is to obtain a higher awareness of the content of her pieces to discover the emotional and social effects they have on the audience. In her opinion, artists, in addition to searching for beauty, and to being entertaining and moving, have the responsibility of filling their works with meaning and must pursue the truth with the aim of changing society.
