'Florian', première at A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam. 30th November, 2014

Mercedes Azpilicueta
F   L   O   R   I   A   N

commissioned by A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam

première at A Tale of a Tub, November 30, 2014

Florian is part of Doors of Perception curated by Fleur van Muiswinkel

Credits:

Concept, text Mercedes Azpilicueta

Dance-performance Joy Kammin, Mercedes Azpilicueta

Space acoustics, vocal arrangements Janneke van der Putten
Photos: Sander van Wettum
Video: Amanda Mullee

With special thanks to Ohad Ben Shimon and Ewa Juszczyk

Synopsis:

Florian, partly rooted in literary fiction, is a dance-performance that has as a main character a young teenager and the way he perceives his daily world. The performance is a subjective and playful response to issues concerning physical, intellectual and emotional growth. Altogether, the piece animates a moment where dance and narrative poetry meet by taking into account the characteristic space of a bathhouse and its pronounced acoustics.

In terms of linguistics, the work puts emphasis on the structure and the way words are connected and pronounced rather than on the plot. The script, which is written in second person, has a conventional beginning that expands progressively losing its sense and installing its own rhythm.

Florian’s scheme

1)     Gravity ball

2)     Greasy touchscreen

3)     No Ctrl

4)     Sitting on a spaceship, bored

5)     Ads & Meds

6)     Future Diaries III

7)     Sailing from Ameland to Robben Island

8)     Future Diaries II

9)     On a motorcycle through the mid West

10)  Future Diaries I

11)  Fibonacci in Delfshaven

12)  Another place

Upcoming Rijksakademie resident Mercedes Azpilicueta (1981) addresses the ambiguity of a personal and unrestrained at times collective subjectivity, applied to a rigorous formality and experimentation with the sound and affective quality of language. By merging poetry, literary techniques as parataxis, everyday communication, visual mnemonics, appropriation, memory and repetition, she develops a practice that is informed by and embraces a discourse of alterity.

Florian from Mercedes Azpilicueta on Vimeo.