Son[i]a #382
Itxaso Corral
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The work of artist Itxaso Corral (b. Bilbao, 1979) calls on an extensive glossary of concepts, media, and practices that explore beyond the bounds of closed definitions, in a gesture that simultaneously expands the scope of possibility of so-called live arts. In her creative space, physiology, language and magic mobilise times and spaces from which to vibrate in interconnection with different organisms, while trying to come closer to the feeling of—not just resolve—her main concern: what does it mean to be alive?
In this podcast, Itxaso Corral shares with us the small rituals that give shape and meaning to her artistic activities: pulsations of life that emerge through performance, dance, singing, and calligraphy as experiential spaces, which are the result of lived experience and long durations, and of the energy that arises from learning and doing with others. The conversation opens a door in space-time to forms of attention and presence, which are conjured by tenderness, listening, empathy, interdependence, and the domestic sphere.
Sound interventions
04:48 This breathing organism
13:33 “Vengo” (poem excerpt)
17:42 “Vengo” (poem excerpt)
19:58 “Vengo” (poem excerpt)
21:05 “Vengo” (poem excerpt)
29:46 Score reading “Oscilanta”
35:38 Score reading “Escuchar, auscultar”
40:58 Dental splint
42:23 Dental splint and “Mandibula”
47:15 Score reading “Olas, aureolas”
48:05 Score reading “Las palabras emanan”
52:12 “Pendiendo de un hilo. Galaxia” (song)
56:46 Score reading”Sónica, fónica”
64:37 Score reading “Planta”
67:45 Score reading “Pulmón”, “Planta”, “Húmedas”
74:11 “Thinking is not cleverness”
75:15 Score reading “Saberes sabiondos”
86:10 Score reading “Unos tanteos, unos extrañamientos”
93:10 Lullaby
99:21 Score reading “PermeHabilidades”
105:10 Score reading “Los poros de las rocas”
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with choreographer, performer and artist Itxaso Corral, which we couldn’t include the first time around. With Itxaso, we embrace the complexity of being-and-doing-with-others, and we look inside some of the notions that underlie her thinking-by-doing: hijacked words that can be set free, such as tenderness, naivety, empathy, modesty and cringe. We also open up a host of questions—poetic, political, and convivial—in order to spend some time with them, leaving them unanswered. How far do things go? Is reading a text just reading a text? Does a written text remain only on the page? Is there no vibration? Who is legitimized, and to say what? Which things are accepted as legitimized and which are left out? Do I seem to be alone? Where can we come together?
Marissa Malik
It’s tempting to describe Marissa Malik’s practice as a crossroads—one where music production intersects with mysticism, DJing and astrology. But the way she talks about these complementary aspects instead suggests that they are all on a sort of Möbius strip, a continuum with no beginning or end, on which they harmonically coexist and feed back on each other. This paradoxical geometry relies on a worldview and a critical gaze that has allowed Marissa to explore and put her own spin on the correlation between language, racial segregation and gender, especially in the framework of diaspora communities like her own. We sat down with Marissa Malik to talk about language, rituals, migration, mysticism, barriers, queerness and sexuality in her musical domain.