Spangbergianism was, at first, an Internet blog written in Summer 2010, one which attracted attention of a community of artists related to dance and performance. Those artists would wait every morning for the new post as if it were a new NETFLIX release, where the dance world, the individual and collective artists’ statements, the modes and production, economic factors and thoughts stacked after every artistic or political decision were discussed in a direct style of writing that would turn everything upside down. In 2018, Alejandra Pombo and María Jerez made up their mind to translate that in Spanish, as amateurs, without having translated a single book before. This presentation of Spangberguianismo invites us to keep thinking together on how to change, a very spangbergianist gesture, in order for the role of the artist to keep being meaningful today.
This translation, published by Desiderata, was made possible by the invitation that Javier Pérez Iglesias sent Alejandra and María to enlarge the collection of the Library of Visual Arts of the UCM.
This book launch is part of a program that opens a reflection on the notion of transmission and critical thinking about practices and knowledges in performing arts today. A four-day program activated in different spaces of the Mercat dels Flors.
Maria i Mårten met in Stockholm in 2001, at the Panacea festival, a festival that Mårten directed from 1996 to 2005. Mårten and Alejandra met in 2004 in the frame of the Mugatxoan programme, directed by Blanca Calvo and Ion Munduate, which would take place between Arteleku (Donosti) and the Fundaçao Serralves (Porto). By then, Alejandra was starting to work on her Escapism Course. Alejandra and María met that same year in that same context. That was the first occasion where the three of us met: Mårten was guiding a workshop with Tino Sehgal in which Alejandra was participating, and María was showing her first piece, The Spectator’s Case. From that moment on we have unceasingly ran into each other, met, discussed, hugged and collaborated.
Written by Mårten Spångberg, 2011.
Translated by Alejandra Pombo and María Jerez.
Episode 5 translated with the collaboration of: Barbara Hang, Victor Colmenero, Oihana Altube, Noemí Oncala, Beatriz Álvarez, Ignacio Redrado, Leticia Skrycky, Laila Tafur, Ainhoa Hernández and Laura Ramírez
Published by Desiderata Editorial, 2018.
With the collaboration of the Library of the Faculty of Fine Arts (UCM), Master of Performing Arts and Visual Culture (UCLM). Project started in a writing residency in Azala, a creative space.