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?

Idea and creation
Monte Isla

Director and playwright
Andrea Pellejero and Adrià Girona

Performed by
Andreu Martínez

Technical coordination
Roberto Baldinelli

Lighting design
Gabriela Bianchi

Sound design
Uriel Ireland and Adrià Girona

Set design
Marta Lofi and Monte Isla

Set construction
Miquel Grima and Marta Lofi

Costume design and stage
Marta Lofi

Executive producer
Rut Girona

Administration/ communication/ distribution
Monte Isla

Resident company of
Nau Ivanow

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

Supported by
Teatro La Mutant, l’Abri (Suiza), Teatre Municipal de Girona, Teatre Municipal de Lloret, l’Animal a l’esquena, Antic Teatre, Konvent.0, El Galliner, Ajuts Girona Crea 2023, Institut Ramon Llull, Goethe-Institut Madrid and Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

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

Aknowledgements
David Marin, Carlota Grau and Neus Masdeu.

//work in progress//
23\03\2024 - L'Animal a l'esquena, Celrà
21\06\2024 - Teatre Municipal de Lloret

//prèmiere//
08-09\07\2024 - Mercat de les Flors, GREC Festival Barcelona

//tour//