Their bodies and their words are, in fact, the elements that Jaime Vallaure and Rafael Lamata, Los Torreznos, most commonly use in their shows. Their creations shift between so-called action art and ‘performing art projects’, and with the latter they explore social and political issues in a way that is accessible for all kinds of audiences, even those who are not used to the more avant-garde or less conventional forms in theatre. With absurd humour and popular references, they take on everyday issues with performances that use the minimum quantity of elements, essentially their presence, bodies and words. The research that has lead to Things and that will make its debut in Catalonia has gone through several incarnations, among which was a foretaste at the Teatro del Barrio and the exhibition of a series of sound pieces at the Galeria Freijo in Madrid entitled ‘Las palabras y las cosas’ [Words and things]. This research is born of the almost obligatory and exclusive relationship that the artists have with their most direct, close environment – the bedroom, the house – and the recording of the word and how it’s pronounced to evoke and recover images of this common place, and the memories and dreamlike shapes of a present that is fading fast.
For Los Torreznos, art and philosophy enhance an everyday experience currently characterised by physical distance and the accumulation and possession that capitalism promotes. We saw the duo of Vallaure and Lamata on the Antic Teatre programme during the 2015 Grec Festival with La cultura and, in 2018, with La realidad, but the pair has toured, performing at numerous national and international venues in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa with creations like Identity, El cielo and El dinero, just to name a few.
Creation, direction and performance: Jaime Vallaure, Rafael Lamata (Los Torreznos)
