After Zurbarán is a multi-textual project which draws from the series of canvasses made by the baroque painter Francisco de Zurbarán known as The saints of Zurbarán. These pieces are portrayals of 18 female hagiographic figures, who were martyrdom, depicted like real women on their way to heaven, while carrying their instruments of torture in their hands. This potential movement of the saints with their objects in a transitory moment contains a performative attitude which becomes the starting point for the development of the piece.

 

After Zurbarán: Part I comprises three of the paintings of Zurbarán: Saint Agatha, Saint Casilda and Saint Margaret, and consists of a durational performance piece composed among the live action and the mediated to create a non linear narrative throughout the juxtaposition of video projections, voice, sculptures, drawings and the performer’s devising. Within this environment I bring the portrayed saints from the XVII century to the current, assuming that these women in their transitory processes to heaven, arise from the mundane and, therefore, they don’t seem to focus on the grandiosity of the promised paradise but instead, they appear to urge the spectator to look what is close, fully aware of the objects they hold in their hands.

 

The narrations of the three saints cohabit the same space, but it is divided in three parts in order to provide the three performances which take place, with a particular environment. They are performed in a row, each of them lasts approximately 25 minutes, and they are separated by a 5 minutes’ interval. The space experiences moments of live action, when the performer inhabits the space, together with moments of rest, when the action occurs only inside the recorded videos. In that sense, even though the presence of the performer completes the meaning of the narration through actions, the space needs to be attended in its solitude, offering clues for the audience to understand the meaning of the piece. This shifts in the notion of presence are a strong part of the dynamics of the piece.