The Floating Citizen
2018

Shall we write a manifesto, or drop out forever? Shall we occupy the left-over remains, or drift upon the edges? Into the dirty streets of the lost city, that is where we go, with the books of loss and new languages under the arm. Give me the lights, give me the rose petals, those taped between your lips. Give me your arm, and the disappearing measurements. The island is like a ghost at sea beckoning to all the misfits and the stinky drifters, the lazy wanderers and shining ones – those who survive to rebuild the world. With wood stolen from the ships, and the fabrics woven from all this trash, the work is an act of movement – a set of beginnings and of letting go, of togetherness and toward – in support of the floating citizen. This figure that is nowhere and everywhere, who is kicked around and who strays, who is dispossessed by and for others, and who may act as a guide. Into the soft occupations and the not knowing for sure, the night-time squares and the sharing, that is where we go. With falling, over, through, and holding up, this imaginary community.

The work is developed in collaboration with a group of performers, moving through the city of Santa Cruz and adopting different movement strategies, listening, becoming another figure, another citizen on the streets: what kind of community might we become? A restless, hidden, creaturely togetherness that captures an island-disposition, a polis of night creatures, and the fugitive joy of supporting, improvising, between one and another. The work is installed as a set of audio-video compositions projected within a series of constructions – a scene of self-built shelters, a club, a secret city where we may gather.

Performers: Judit Mendoza Aguilar, Gabriela Alonzo, Sandra Simancas Punzón, Silvia Hernández Delgado, María Isabel Hernández Diaz, Paula Pérez Martín

As part of the sound art series “Prácticas Territoriales” / Laboratorio de Acción, June 19 – August 5th, 2018
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes
Curator: Juan Matos Capote

Related video works: https://vimeo.com/286332322 / https://vimeo.com/286313898