lee gamble presents MODELS with candela capitán
British artist Lee Gamble will collaborate with Spanish choreographer/action artist Candela Capitán to bring his new album Models to the stage. In a special Unsound commission, the duo developed a piece featuring lighting design by Jacqueline Sobiszewski.
Dealing with mimicry and simulation, Models works with a set of simulated voices singing in an almost wordless language, both AI-generated and synthetic - widescreen memories that reverberate across the last few decades of pop history.
These voices are naturally disembodied, trained by and on humans. The non-human voice without a body is magical; alone and somewhat incomplete, it's a display of supernatural force. Through movement, this energy is temporarily hosted by the physical presence of the performers.
Models uses the idea of learning, mimicry and the sharing of physical signals and information to inform the narrative and overall movement.
Candela Capitán’s own work explores the activation and deactivation of social ties, positioning the body in relation to others, to objects and to collective imagery. Her projects address new forms of communication technology, relationships that blur the lines between artistic disciplines, plus intergenerational trauma and its consequences, resisting existing narratives about women's bodies and sexuality. They serve as vehicles of creation for dreamlike spaces and parallel realities manifesting in the form of choreography, installations, and performances that invite the viewer to engage directly with the tension, delight, and delirium therein.
Candela's choreography for Models investigates the dynamics of embodiment, mimicry and mechanization, via the use of a paratheatrical device that mobilizes the movement against limitations posed on the body by contemporary technologies.
Measuring the IRL experience against that mediated via technology, the performers stream their close ups throughout the piece via instagram live.
Lee Gamble - concept & art direction, music & sound design
Candela Capitán - performance direction & choreography, staging
performed by: Julia Romero Soriano, Mariona Moranta Capllonch, Virginia Martin Mateos
Jacqueline Sobiszewski - light design
Costume concept: Candela Capitán
Dramaturgy assistance: Joan Morey
Harnesses: Josep Pagà Lleixà
This version of Models is a co-production of Unsound & Sónar
Travel party: 6 - 7 pax, 120 min soundcheck, 120 min rehearsal on stage. Production info: katarzyna@annexagency.co.uk
