What you’re reading is the story of the birth of a way of doing things.
The story of the birth of a way of seeing the world.
Because those who wrote the story decided not to tell us about their failures.
The story of how, in the driest desert in the world, among mining settlements, ghost towns and tales of the Wild West, the foundations were laid for the all-powerful industry of contemporary art.
But above all, it’s the story of the families who made these atrocities into part of their daily lives. Beings who, instead of fleeing, decided to stay and make the harshest desert on the planet their last and final refuge.
Three characters, a woman and two men, transform the gallery of a contemporary art museum into a section of the Atacama Desert before our eyes. As they move and create they see, passing over them, the history of the desert they have decided to inhabit. The story of how this corner of the world has been for centuries the cradle of both riches and atrocities, of how it has been exploited to exhaustion time and time again, and of how this story that is born in Atacama extends across the world at the hand of the great fortunes that control contemporary art, the arms industry and world finance. It’s just the three of them in the middle of nowhere, but they’re not alone as the whole desert beats strongly against them. We’re here to find out by reading, seeing and listening why someone would choose to live in the most inhospitable place on the planet.
Txalo Toloza-Fernández (Antofagasta, 1975)
Somewhere between audio-visual creation, performance and activism, Txalo Toloza-Fernández has decided to embrace the label of being unclassifiable, in the knowledge that by not pigeon-holing himself clearly he is making things even more complicated. And at the same time providing hiimself with an excuse to do pretty much what he likes without too much worry. A member of La Sauna International, the Roger Bernat company and a regular collaborator with performer Sònia Gómez, this is his third piece together with Navarrese choreographer Laida Azkona.
Laida Azkona Goñi (Pamplona, 1981)
Laida trained as a dancer and choreographer in Pamplona, England, Austria and New York.
She currently works as a dancer and directs her own performance pieces with a particular focus on movement.
Over the past few years she has collaborated with companies Wee/ Scavetta Company (Oslo), In this Section – Juschka Weigel (Berliin), Sens Production – Noemí Lafrance (New York)
and Cia. Bebeto Cidra (Barcelona) among others. Her two most recent solo creations are Mu-To (excavar un túnel hasta China) and Ciento Volando. Her latest premiered show was Títulos para una aproximación al ruído.
Laida is also artistic director of the Inmediaciones Festival.