A System in Collapse Is a System Moving Forward
Aimar Pérez Galí
On the occasion of its sixth anniversary, celebrated in September 2019, Blueproject Foundation presents A System in Collapse Is a System Moving Forward by Aimar Pérez Galí. The performance will take place in Il Salotto on 19 October at 7 pm (in English) and at 9pm (in Spanish), during the final days of the It’s Not What You Think exhibition by Elmgreen & Dragset.
A System in Collapse Is a System Moving Forward is a dance piece that can be understood as the prologue to The Touching Community, a project that Aimar Pérez Galí began in 2015, and which investigates the parallel expansion of AIDS and Contact Improvisation during the 1980s and 1990s in Spain and certain Latin American countries. This dance technique was established by Steve Paxton and is based on the improvised movements that arise from the physical contact between two bodies, hence the contrast with the immunity policies that HIV/AIDS brought with it.
“A system in collapse is a system moving forward” was the phrase that dancer Arnie Zane pronounced to his artistic and life partner, dancer Bill T. Jones, before passing away as a result of AIDS. Taking this phrase as an analogy between the link that Pérez Galí speculates between the proliferation of the HIV/AIDS virus and the practice of Contact Improvisation, this piece/prologue presents the conference that Jon Greenberg, leading member of ACT UP NYC, gave at Arteleku (Donostia, Spain) in 1992, invited by artist Pepe Espaliú.
The piece will be performed by Daniel Méndez Piña and Aimar Pérez Galí.
Free activity.
Limited seats. For bookings, mail info@blueprojectfoundation.org. Please, specify in your email which session you would like to attend (7 or 9m).
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Concept and direction: Aimar Pérez Galí
Dance: Daniel Méndez Piña and Aimar Pérez Galí
Text: Jon Greenberg
Research Advisor: Aimar Arriola
Dramaturgy: Jaime Conde-Salazar
Concept and direction: Aimar Pérez Galí
Dance: Daniel Méndez Piña and Aimar Pérez Galí
Text: Jon Greenberg
Research Advisor: Aimar Arriola
Dramaturgy: Jaime Conde-Salazar
Production: CONDEGALÍ B.L.
About the artists
In 1982, when people first began to hear about AIDS, Aimar was born in Barcelona. In 1990, when Daniel was born in Caracas (Venezuela), Aimar began taking violin lessons and took to the stage for the first time in the Gran Teatre del Liceu as an extra in Mozart's Magic Flute. Four years later, Aimar began taking tap dance lessons, inspired by Gene Kelly. At the age of eight, Daniel began his training in artistic gymnastics, which he continued until 2002, the year he moved to Barcelona with his mother and grandmother, and the same year Aimar moved to Amsterdam to study contemporary dance. When Daniel began his training in contemporary dance in 2009, Aimar decided to return to Barcelona and set up Espacio Práctico. It was in this space where in 2012 he invited Oscar Dasí to a Retro Night to speak about his career and, touched by his words, decided to investigate the relationship between the AIDS epidemic and dance. The following year, Daniel received a scholarship to train as a dancer at the school where Aimar teaches, the same scholarship Aimar received in 2001. Aimar and Dani have been collaborating artistically in The Touching Community alongside Óscar, Jaime and Jesús since 2018.
