Un cos sense talent [A Talentless Body]

Plato’s Protagoras recounts the myth of Epimetheus and Prometheus, two brothers cut from different cloth: the “afterthinker” and the “forethinker”. Epimetheus, the more careless of the two, was responsible for giving each animal its particular characteristics. He gave the turtles shells, the snakes poison, the lions fangs... And when he had finished, he realised that he had run out of things to give, that he had forgotten one poor creature – humankind – a defenceless body that would receive fire stolen from the gods. Un cos sense talent is based on the image evoked by this myth: a precarious body holding in its hands an extraneous virtue, the tool with which it confronts the hostility of the world. 

Until now, Monte Isla has focused its attention on the spaces that contain us, on the notion of the “other” and on the places where humans are absent. This work is presented in three pieces, the Trilogía sobre el Paisaje [Trilogy about the landscape]: Allí donde no estamos [Where we aren't](Espai Nyam Nyam, 2021), Donde empieza el bosque acaba el pueblo [Where the forest begins, the town ends] (TNT, 2022, ex aequo award in the performing arts category of the 3rd El Temps de les Arts Awards) and Escuchas del paisaje [Listening to the landscape] (La Mutant, 2023).

With this new performance piece, Monte Isla asks how to stage the body. What happens when we look at this body, this body that we share, this body that we use as a unit of measurement for the world and that defines the limits of consciousness, this body that is present under the disguise of every social and cultural fiction, this organic monstrosity that becomes ridiculous and obscene against the sculptural charm of the dead?

Co-produced by the Grec 2024 Festival de Barcelona, El Canal Centre de creació d’arts escèniques, Festival TNT and the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque.

With the support of La Mutant L’Abri (Switzerland), Teatre Municipal de Girona, Teatre de Lloret, L’animal a l’esquena, Konvent.0, El Galliner, Ajuts Girona Crea 2023, Institut Ramon Llull, Goethe-Institut Madrid and the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia.

With support from the creative residency exchange with the National Theatre and Concert Hall (Taiwan) and the Teatre Lliure’s Carlota Soldevila creation grants, Season 23/24 and international program of Nau Ivanow

Monte Isla is resident company of Nau Ivanow.