Un cadavre exquis II

Un cadavre exquis II,

a dance solo by Pau Aran is dedicated to encounters, to the direct link with our ancestors and to gratitude, in a subtle, shy and somewhat abstract way.

Three gazes, three moments of life (past, present and future) mark our stories relentlessly and indeed forever. The absences that accompany and surround us continue to inform our daily lives even though they do not physically exist due to time or space. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, they can be as unsettling and alluring as ghosts which, both metaphorically and paradoxically, suggest absence and presence at one and the same time. A ghost is a kind of force, an entity able to return.

The title of the solo refers to a playful method developed by the Surrealists that allows chance to play its part in creation and thus challenges the audience?s power of interpretation. Pau is fascinated by surrealist art and how it interacts with the unconscious and the unspoken. He also finds the relationship between handicrafts and dance particularly stimulating and inspiring insofar as both use matter, the body and repetition in a similar way. But without a shadow of a doubt, as far as he is concerned, their most important shared aspect is how they transmit information down through the ages: the transgenerational dimension that lies latent in them both.

Inspired by the craft of movement and gesture in dance, this work explores the need to recognise the places, beings and experiences we interact with to this very day as the origin of our essence. Make way for identity. It needs to express thanks and be taken into consideration. The images follow one after the other, the characters occur. Everyone is here. Visible or not, tangible or not.

When we leave this place, what remains as the essence of a lifetime?