Practices of the (non) visible: the operating body and the double vision 

Olga Mesa

Abstract

At the origin of my works is the gaze as a physical place of perception, capturing and montage, which places the body in a landscape of multiple narratives where its presence can be displaced, altered and questioned. Some time ago I wrote that «the gaze is what makes the empty space between bodies disappear». In this presentation of my work I am going to name and communicate a principle of vocabulary belonging to numerous (non) visible practices inscribed in the dramaturgies of my works, scenic, audiovisual and performative. The body-operator and the double vision are configured within the devices that I have been articulating from the body, being pillar concepts of my spatialized and cinematographic choreographic writing. I seek to configure their presence within a field of battle and experimentation, around (non) fictional places of encounters and common memories. I propose points of contact and friction between what it shows and what it hides, between what it perceives and what it thinks, between what is real and what is imaginary.

Bio

Choreographer and visual artist, Olga Mesa is one of the key figures in contemporary Spanish dance. Since the 1990s, her search for a personal and renewed writing of the body has led her to affirm the intimate part of representation, through a construction that combines expression and perception.In her international career, she proposes works of an experimental nature, deliberately on the fringes of dance, performance and visual arts. For the past ten years, she has been working with the out-of-format artist Francisco Ruiz de Infante on the construction of the choreographic, plastic and audiovisual project «Carmen // Shakespeare» (2012-2022). Together, they direct the Hors // Champ // Fuera de Campo company, creating context and practices for the interdisciplinary arts.Olga Mesa also directs choreographic creation workshops and laboratories using the body as a narrative medium. In these contexts, she dialogues with processes of analysis and reflections linked to other arts: cinema, sound, visual arts and literature. She is currently working on a new solo piece : «A table of one’s own(hands dance)» and preparing a retrospective exhibition for the CGAC in Santiago de Compostela (2023). Based in Strasbourg since 2005, her company's scenic creations have been presented at various festivals and artistic institutions in Europe, Americas and Africa.