Spanish Federation of Dance Companies Network
ARTIFICIOS Y LEOPARDOS (Leopards and devices) MERCEDES PEDROCHE

ARTIFICIOS Y LEOPARDOS is a piece conceived as a stage experience where the public is an active part of the action. With a hybrid language, halfway between theater and dance, the work is inspired by the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" written by Albert Camus and by Nietzsche's concepts of the eternal return and amor fati. Through an iterative device, a woman canalizes a collective experiment about freedom. A woman, curtailed by the absurdity of Camus’ Sisyphus, lives trapped in the quagmire of a cyclical experience that has led her to an impasse. She roams around listlessly, like a female leopard in a solitary cage, denying creeds and flock mentality. Almost incapable of finding the strength to support her own weight, and conscious of her vulnerability, she follows the tracks from her own failure to the vital impulse that enables her to live in the margin of the embellished and fictitious beliefs that set in motion the social mechanisms. She searches for the complicity of the audience in a collective reflexion, and asks herself if we want or can find freedom in the dance to which Nietzsche so often referred.   The process of creating this piece has been carried out between Colombia and Spain with the following support: • Research and creation residency A GATAS, promoted by Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Teatro de la Abadía and RESAD (Royal Superior School of Dramatic Arts/ Madrid) • Aid for Choreographic Production 2019 from the Comunidad de Madrid • Technical residency at Centro Cultural Paco Rabal (Madrid) • Artistic residency at Centro de Danza Canal (Madrid) • Dance creation grant from Alcaldía de Medellín (Colombia) • Creation residency at Pequeño Teatro de Medellín y Casa de la Música (Colombia)   The piece has been presented at: • Premiere November 2019: Teatro de la Abadía (Madrid) • Teatros del Canal (Madrid)/ Festival Internacional Madrid en Danza • Casa de América (Madrid) / Festival Ellas Crean • Fabra i Coats (Barcelona) / Festival Dansa Quinzena Metropolitana • Auditorio La Mutant (Valencia) • Centro Cultural Paco Rabal (Madrid)   Credits and datasheet
 Premiered: 13/11/2019 / Available

Direction, texts, choreography and performance
Mercedes Pedroche

Stage concept
Mercedes Pedroche, Felipe Caicedo

Assistant direction
Martina Novakova

External view
Pablo Messiez

Original music
Borja Ramos, Vidal

Sound space designer
Borja Ramos

Lighting design
Cía de la Luz

Lighting and technical director
Inés de la Iglesia

Set design and costume
Mercedes Pedroche

Photography
Eva Viera, Ciro Pérez

Video
Eva Viera

Production assistant
Mariano Repollés

Distribution assistant
Elisa Pérez

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• Length: 90 minutes (aprox.) whitout intermission

• Genre: Contemporary

• Lenguage: Spanish

• Number of performers: 1

• All public

• Theaters and non-conventional spaces
MERCEDES PEDROCHE
ARTIFICIOS Y LEOPARDOS is a piece conceived as a stage experience where the public is an active part of the action. With a hybrid language, halfway between theater and dance, the work is inspired by the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" written by Albert Camus and by Nietzsche's concepts of the eternal return and amor fati. Through an iterative device, a woman canalizes a collective experiment about freedom. A woman, curtailed by the absurdity of Camus’ Sisyphus, lives trapped in the quagmire of a cyclical experience that has led her to ...

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