Reminiscencia

Malicho Vaca Valenzuela

  • A scene from <Reminiscencia>. One person stands alone at the left of the darkened stage, with a large screen at the right. On the screen, an old photograph of three smiling people on a rocky shore is displayed like a computer window, with the word ‘REMINISCENCE’ visible. A small desk with a laptop stands at the front of the stage.
  • A scene from <Reminiscencia>. On the large screen behind the stage, an elderly couple lean together to look at a laptop. In front, at the right, the director sits at a desk operating a laptop and speaking into a microphone.
  • A scene from <Reminiscencia>. An aerial photograph of a square filled with a vast crowd is projected across the screen behind the stage. Below, a person in pale clothing sits at a desk with a laptop and speaks into a microphone.
  • A scene from <Reminiscencia>. An aerial photograph of a mass demonstration filling a city avenue is projected onto the screen. At the desk in front of it, a person sits with a laptop and speaks into a microphone.
  • A scene from <Reminiscencia>. Blurred night-street footage is projected on the screen: a figure in a white dress at the left, dark silhouettes at the centre, and a mouse cursor hovering over the image. At the desk in front, a person raises both hands as they speak into a microphone.

© Christophe Raynaud de Lage_Festival d'Avignon

  • Director Malicho Vaca Valenzuela
  • Genre Play
  • Date 10.24.Sat 7pm 10.25.Sun 3pm, 7pm
  • Language Spanish
  • Accessibility Korean Subtitles, English Subtitles
  • Rating 16 and above
  • Venue Arko Arts Theater Small Theater
  • Duration 55 min.
  • Premiere 2021
  • Tickets 50,000 won

 

Introduction

Locked in his house during the COVID pandemic, Malicho Vaca Valenzuela sat down in front of his computer and began to organise a collage of collective memories. But what began as a personal experiment on the archives turned into an unidentified theatrical object.

Through a delicate and seductive use of digital platforms, the creator digs into his personal biography and at the same time into the biography of his city, Santiago de Chile, into a recent memory and at the same time into deep scars, generated by social outbursts and past dictatorships. It is an experience that focuses on singular places, revealing an emotional topography, a relationship with the city that is always different for each and every one of us, but in which we inevitably find ourselves. The piece is a motionless journey, from the Milky Way to the narrow passage where three generations of his family have already lived.

Malicho digs into the earth, and with a simple click on a digital map, he replays the love story of his grandparents, wrapped up in boleros, love songs and choreographies, at the same time as he evokes mysterious and anonymous loves engraved with fire in his city, and recounts shards of repressed revolutions; all fragments of an intimate and collective memory.

In <REMINISCENCIA> we find a very sensitive, political and intimate biographical documentary essay: what will happen to our traces when we are no longer here? What will be left of us in the streets of our cities? What will be left of us in the external memory of an old computer? What story will Google tell about us when we are no longer here? Can a memory be mapped?

Director
Portrait of director Malicho Vaca Valenzuela. Resting his arms on a stone step with his chin propped on one hand, he looks toward the camera. He has curly hair and wears a light blue sleeveless top.

Malicho Vaca Valenzuela

Chilean artist Malicho Vaca Valenzuela has been working in the theatrical field for fifteen years as an author, director and actor. He has written six plays to date, and is currently in the creative process for a new project.

His work tackles a variety of themes including sexual diversity, gender and human rights. His projects are also nourished by the study of Latin American narratives and memory, as well as a reflection on biographical writing.

A delicate and sensitive approach to different technological formats enables Malicho to expose his creative process to the audience as well as to write, from a position of vulnerability, an autobiography that is interwoven with the history of a territory marked by multiple revolutionary failures.

Credits
  • Creation, direction, video and playwritingMalicho Vaca Valenzuela
  • PerformersMalicho Vaca Valenzuela
  • ImageRosa Alfaro y Lindor Valenzuela
  • Assistant directorÉbana Garín Coronel
  • Administration, production and distributionÉbana Garín, Luis Guenel, Roni Isola and Fundación Cuerpo Sur
  • Thanks tomy grandparents. Malicho Vaca Valenzuela is an associated artist of the “Fundación Cuerpo Sur”.
Malicho Vaca Valenzuela

  • One of the Top Ten shows in the 78th Avignon Festival
    — Le Bruit du Off
  • Relier récit intime, regard sensible et histoire contemporaine du Chili
    — Sceneweb, 2024.7.18.