The Ellas Crean Festival takes place throughout the month of March and until April 7th. A proposal that combines dance, theatre, music, literature and visual arts in an attempt to reflect on the active and producer role of women in the cultural sector.

One week ago the International Women's Day was celebrated all over the world, and our country was an example of the ability to call one of the largest social mobilisations that wanted to question the pre-established gender roles and claim social equality which still is a historical debt.

“Óyeme con los ojos”. María Pagés Company

Around this milestone, many contributions have been generated from the world of the arts, among which "Ellas Crean" stands out. This festival is an initiative of the Institute for Women and Equal Opportunities and the Conde Duque Cultural Centre, which has had the collaboration of more than thirty institutions of the capital to build a solid program where women are the protagonists. The project obeys to a collective clamour that has been growing and increasing in adherents in recent years. According to the Minister of Culture of France "the cultural sector has the duty to be exemplary in terms of equality between men and women", and to this aim, the festival responds, which is now in its 14th edition.

Ana Dévora

From March 1st to April 7th, activities in all disciplines are concentrated and offer a wide range of possibilities for all tastes and trends. In addition to institutional support, the contributions of many national museums to the program stand out and help to enrich the exhibition content with samples that deal with the figure of relevant women and the role of women in the arts from different perspectives, both social and historical.

“Sin ellas no hay futuro” ©Patrick Farrell

In a more contemporary level, the proposals of plastic arts are completed with two photography exhibitions in Conde Duque: "Sur la route", by Ana Dévora, a landscape image that invites to meet again with nature, and "Sin ellas no hay futuro", which portrays the harsh reality that women suffer in contexts of humanitarian crisis, organized by Doctors Without Borders. In addition, the "Tres en suma" initiative, which celebrates its 7th anniversary within the festival, brings together exhibition, performance and poetry in the first two weeks of April.

ABIERTO INFINITO. LO QUE EL CUERPO RECUERDA. CICLO DE PERFORMANCE X ART MADRID'26

Art Madrid, committed to creating a discursive platform for artists working within the field of performance and action art, presents Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda, a proposal inspired by Erving Goffman’s ideas in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Amorrortu Editores, Buenos Aires, 1997).

The project unfolds within a theoretical framework that directly engages with these premises, conceiving social interaction as a stage of carefully modulated performances designed to influence others’ perceptions. Goffman argues that individuals deploy both verbal and involuntary expressions to guide the interpretation of their behavior, sustaining roles and façades that define the situation for those who observe.

The body — the first territory of all representation — precedes both word and learned gesture. Human experience, conscious and unconscious alike, is inscribed within it. Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda departs from this premise: representation inhabits existence itself, and life, understood as a succession of representations, transforms the body into a space of constant negotiation over who we are. In this passage, boundaries blur; the individual opens toward the collective, and the ephemeral acquires symbolic dimension. By inhabiting this interstice, performance simultaneously reveals the fragility of identity and the strength that emerges from encounter with others.

PERFORMANCE: OSCURECER UN PAPEL. BY ROCÍO VALDIVIESO

March 5 | 7:00 PM. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.

Nocturnality. Installation. Rocío Valdivieso..

Oscurecer un papel forms part of a series of actions in which the artist engages in reading through repetition, memorization, and a measured degree of improvisation. Within this framework, a non-linear mode of reading emerges from a written text that is transformed when spoken aloud, assuming a different form in the act of articulation. The texts stem from an ongoing investigation into materiality, space, the relationships between body and matter, writing, the sculptural, and a sustained interest in the exploration of voice and orality.

The material from which Oscurecer un papel is constructed consists of a collection of purchase receipts the artist has been accumulating over time. The printed text they contain, together with the action of bringing them into proximity with a heat source—thereby activating the thermal paper on which they are produced—generates meanings that revolve around the notions of consumption and wear.

Rocío Valdivieso. Latent Aura. Performance documentation.

ABOUT ROCÍO VALDIVIESO

Rocío Valdivieso is an artist, researcher, and cultural manager. She is currently a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. She holds an MA in Research in Artistic Practices from the University of Castilla–La Mancha (UCLM) and a BA in Fine Arts from the National University of Tucumán, Argentina. She was a Fundación Carolina fellow from 2022 to 2023. She currently co-directs Errática. Laboratory of Processes and Critique in Madrid, alongside Romina Casile.

She was part of the PEEPA 2023 Program at the Centro de Residencias Artísticas, Matadero Madrid. She completed the 2021/22 Artists Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, and in 2020 participated in the Intensive Curatorial Program of Proyecto PAC at Galería Gachi Prieto, Buenos Aires. She received the Visual Arts Promotion Award at the 4th Visual Arts Week of the Ente Cultural de Tucumán. She was awarded an AUGM scholarship for an exchange residency at UNESP, São Paulo, Brazil. She also participated in the International Residency Program La Ira de Dios and in the Acéfala Galería Residency for Argentine artists.