Cuerpografías

Synopsis

Derived from the word “cartography,” the term “cuerpografía” — along with the theoretical exploration built on the concept — first appears in the studies and writings of architecture and urban planning professor Paola Jacques in 2003: “the city is read by the body as a set of interactive conditions, and the body reveals the synthesis of that interaction by recovering, in its corporality, what we have called urban body-graphy.” Cuerpografía is a bodily cartography, or body-graphy — hence cuerpografía.

The artistic current of cartography can be briefly defined as an ephemeral action: a drawing that occurs through the relationship established between the subject and space, rather than as a representation of lines and drawings condensed onto a map. The cartographic method does not allow for a theory-practice divide; it is a research-intervention that generates the production of knowledge and of reality. The cartographic action stands in opposition to the scenographic city, since to know is not only to acquire information about a supposedly fixed space, but also to recognise the meaning and singularity of each space and to commit to the production of subjectivity.

In line with cartographic research, cuerpografía focuses on bodily actions and establishes itself as an affective map, where the map of the territory comes to be read through the body. That body moves through the city’s landscapes with subtlety or aggression, and it is by tracing this map that the relationships lived and pulsing within the city are revealed; it is within us and with us. For Paola Jacques, the notion of cuerpografía understands the body as the very phenomenon of representation and of its experiences with the environment, where the territory is the extended phenotype of the body, such that both express themselves at once. A cuerpografía understands the body as a synthesis of sensory and motor registers (bodily actions) that self-select as they relate to space, where space in turn becomes a synthesis of this register. This is not a form of determinism, but of shared constructions and a process that merges body and territory, in which neither stands opposite the other but rather both move forward together.

About the project

Cuerpografías is a dance-and-territory project led by choreographer Mari Paula. It is organised as a short residency of bodily and urban experimentation between the selected resident dancers and the city spaces where the piece will be presented.

The outcome of the project is reflected not only in the performative action, but also, and above all, in the experiences and subjectivities of each participant.

Cuerpografías is a proposal designed to be staged as part of the programming of Festivals, Choreographic Centres, Universities, etc.

The proposal is organised over 6 working days, as follows:
– Day 1 – audition/selection of local artists;
– Days 2 to 5 – residency of body-graphic experimentation in the chosen locations.
– Day 6 – Cuerpografías action.