I-CorDes - Eleventh session
On Subjectivity: Body, Subject, Emancipation

• Day: September 30
• Time: 11 am-8 pm
• Space: Aljub
• Paid activity (€5) with prior registration and limited places
• Registered people should wear comfortable clothes and bring a mat

The proposal of I-CorDes (Institute of Delocalized Corpologies) for this eleventh session focuses on a practice that incorporates improvisation and Afro-contemporary and traditional African movement, proposed by Tom Jules Samie together with Djembe Colors, which will provide sound elements of percussion coming from from Africa; in addition to a theorization of the concept of performance considering the idea of subjectivity that includes the decolonial perspective, developed by Juan Albarrán. This activity is open to all audiences.

PROGRAMME

11:00 am Presentation
11:30 am – Juan Albarrán: “Performance and subjectivity”
1:30 p.m. – Lunch Break
4:00 p.m. – Tom Jules Samie and Djembe Colors: “Release the subject through the body”

In recent decades, the concept of subjectivity has been debated and studied. As a result of this interest, multiple meanings of the terms “subject”, “subjectivity” and “subjectification” have appeared, referring to emancipatory processes, focused on the freedom of action of the subjects, but also on the disciplining and subjection of their bodies. In this concept, the analyses of the forms of subjectivation of the individual and the desire to enhance their capacity for action converge. Talking about subjectivity implies talking about our bodies, identities and conflicts, about the place from which we speak and about what we can do and think together.

11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m. Juan Albarrán: «Performance and subjectivity»

The concept of subjectivity has been fundamental in the development and theorization of performative practices over the last two decades. This presentation will try to explore some of its possible meanings in the field of contemporary art, putting into dialogue the contributions of philosophers and creators: What are the conditions of possibility of subjectivities in the artistic space delimited by certain performative practices? What intersubjective relationships and what models of subjectivity have been tested and debated during the last decades in the territory of performance? How can we think of ourselves, as individuals and collectives, in relation to these projects? How do they address us, what type of subjects constitute us and what room for maneuver do we have to negotiate our experience and identity in the room? before the performers, or in other spaces from which we can have a mediated access to the performance?

1:30 p.m. -4:00 p.m. – Lunch break
4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Tom Jules Samie and Djembe Colors: “Release the subject through the body”

In this I-CorDes session the following concepts will be worked on: conscious breathing, presence, discipline, implicit intentions of the movements, anchoring and individual connection to the earth, opening of the body, resistance, different levels and qualities of movement, approaches to create movement, use of space, narrative of the body and how to transform imagination into dance. This work will be completed with the physical practice of the Acogny and Nhaka techniques. Guidelines will also be given to develop movement research work: introduction to improvisation, body contact in movement, and different steps of Afro-contemporary and traditional African movement.

In addition to the physical and emotional work applied to the body, we must not forget that both the voice and other types of sound elements are connected with the movements of our bodies. In the African musical tradition, repetition plays a fundamental role in the search for a state of consciousness that allows us to transcend our individuality. So the practice will be accompanied by the exploration of vocal and percussive exercises, in addition to having different instruments and percussions from Africa.

BIOGRAPHIES

Tom Jules Samie is a Togolese dance artist, performer, choreographer and educator. Tom began dancing in his school’s ballet and then joined the local Ballet in Togo, learning traditional Togolese dance from an early age. Since 2006 he joined the traditional Togolese dance company, Kekeli and Dagbénéva and performed at national festivals. He participated in the ‘AmFree-Ka’ project; a research, exchange and creation that questions the decolonization of the body with dancers from different countries, four residencies have been carried out organized by Vanessa Neva Verdoodt. Since 2019, he has been dancing for Nora Chipaumire’s company. He has also participated in the Pina Bausch project The Rite of Spring organized by the Pina Bausch foundation, the Ecole des Sables and the Sadler’s Wells theatre. Tom’s work is a constant dialogue around traditional and contemporary dances of the African continent, strengthening his understanding of dance as a social practice and an art form.

Juan Albarrán teaches Art History at Autonomous University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, UAM). His research and teaching focus on contemporary art practices and theories. Specific research topics include the relationships between art and politics in Spain since the transition to democracy, performance art, photography theories, and the representation of political violence in contemporary visual culture. He is the author of Tortura y representación en la cultura visual contemporánea (2023), Disputas sobre lo contemporáneo. Arte español entre el antifranquismo y la postmodernidad (2019) and Performance y arte contemporáneo. Discursos, prácticas, problemas (2019), and he has edited the books Arte y Transición (2012, 2018), Llámalo Performance: Historia, disciplina y recepción (2015), and Miguel Trillo, Double Exposure (2017).

Djembe Colors is a non-profit association made up of musicians from different backgrounds and created in 2020, based on the island of Mallorca, focused on the study and development of the sounds of instruments with African roots. Through this ancestral culture, they recover the links of union, from the rhythmic pulsations of the most universal human essence: music and rhythm. The intention is, from a new contemporary perspective, to work on sounds, taking as reference the ancestral traditions that unite musical expression with life, beyond the hermetic contexts of modern culture. It is a collective in development that works with proposals for body expression, performance, dance, singing… Space, groups and sound are what condition and with which the body and sound vibrations also dialogue, at the service of a unique round-trip experience, shared by its creators and recipients.