Desbordes: otra historia del ojo

Our eyes have turned to water.

Laia Estruch, Sibina

In Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille, there is a scene which takes place in a bullring, which, like theatrical architectures, is a place from which to look. In the scene, “under a blinding sun”1, among other ocular conjunctions, the spectators witness a bullfight in which the bull charges the bullfighter, flipping him in the air as it gores him. One of its horns spears an eye, which comes out of its socket, overflowing like a river when it grows. 

Within Desbordes: otra historia del ojo flow works whose performativity surpasses the pre-eminence of the scopic regime, the relationship of vision with events, the body or the territory, works whose iridescence opens up space for the configuration of other possible agencies in the gaze of the spectators. Like a river, the programme proposes a route which flows through the connection between Aumentar el caudal de un río by Luz Broto, Pigmeus do Mondego by Nilo Gallego and Respiración oceánica by Itziar Okariz with the collaboration of Izar Ocariz.

It begins with Luz Broto’s intervention —two pictures which were part of the original installation are shown here. The basis of the work consisted of literally and minutely increasing the flow of the Segre River in Lleida, which has been lower for a century due to economic interests. Preserving the relationship of visual scales or volumes of the project, one of the images is the furtive view of the hidden hose from which the water gushed into the river, while the other shows an aerial view of the river running through the territory with its imperceptibly increased flow.

The curatorial project continues with Pigmeus do Mondego, a performance by Nilo Gallego which was presented at Citemor, a festival held in Montemor-o- Velho, one of the longest-standing and most important performing arts events on the peninsula. The Mondego River meanders through the paddy fields of this small Portuguese town, and Nilo Gallego and his collaborators turned the river into an astonishing stage for their performance, turning the Mondego into a sonorous participant. The video of the work will be accessible on the living arts web platform Teatron during the week of the festival.

The programme ends with Respiración oceánica by Itziar Okariz at the Museo Oteiza. In this performance, the sound produced by Ujjayi breathing, as used in yoga, emanates from the bodies of Itziar Okariz and Izar Ocariz, flowing through their speech apparatus just like rivers flow into oceans. Like great masses of water, the amplified breathing of Itziar and Izar floods everything, transporting us towards the zero degree of meaning, where before the word there was sound, a horizon of images yet to be created.

The physical phenomenon by which certain bodies absorb moisture from the air until they form an aqueous solution and become water is called deliquescence. Imagine that these bodies are eyes. Deliquescent eyes which absorb everything that happens until they spill from their sockets. Spectators with eyes of water which recover the agency to build another place from which to look, another story of the eye.

Fernando Gandasegui

1. Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye, Ruedo Ibérico, Paris, 1977.