KULTUR emerged as an independent spin-off from LA PLAZA, a performance piece El Conde de Torrefiel premiered in 2018, by extracting one of the literary situations it contains and using this as the starting point for a new concept.
KULTUR does not adhere to theatrical conventions; instead, it presents as a performative installation where the audience are placed in the position of total voyeurs watching an unquestionably explicit scene enacted within the realistic context of an audition, while at the same time listening to an uncontrolled stream of disconnected thoughts from a writer searching for inspiration in front of a blank page. KULTUR evokes the shudder experienced when observing nudity in its most fragile, dark and human sense.
Tanya Beyeler and Pablo Gisbert have headed artistic project El Conde de Torrefiel since 2010. Their staged productions contain a particular visual and textual aesthetic resulting from a fluctuation between literature, visual arts and choreography that aims to transcend the parameters of verbal language.
The company shapes its work as an extended ‘Essay on the Present’ divided into various installments, creating narratives that investigate the tensions between the individual and the collective characterising 21st century Western society, and materialising them on stage in unexpected ways.
Their works have been shown in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Korea and Japan, and at European festivals such as Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Alkantara Festival in Lisbon and the Short Theater in Rome.
