Activity

Silence is a polysemy concept that can be used to describe different situations in different contexts. The idea of silence encompasses both literal and symbolical lack of sound in which poetic images, theories and historical analysis on social phenomena, spiritual processes or personal pacts can take part.

Besides, noise is the necessary counterpart of silence noise, sort of an inseparable marriage passing the baton from one to another throughout our perception. Music contemplates silence as a seal between passages, as a dilatation of the space in blank, or as a previous clear call to harmonic change.  In fact, silence can be a communicative resource or a musical measure, but what does it happens when silence comes from a society in conflict?

CD CONTENTS
 
Audio
Tres
 
Video
María Ruído
 
Images
Fran Meana
 
Text 
Traficantes de sueños -Dream dealers-

PROGRAMMING
13 NOV

18:30 H. Round table: The Politics of science. Perspective from the intellectual and artistic practice.
Presented and moderated by Daniel Granados (Producciones Doradas/ Doropaedia)
Lecturer: María Ruido, Traficantes de sueños (Julia Millán Bermejo), Tres.
This round table aims to deal with the idea of the already suffered silence from politics, understanding politics as all that which make references to the capacity to decide about the subjects of the life in society and found and alter, not only the law which governs human society but the its perception. Lecturer will approach the concept explaining the way they understand and board the idea of silence from their intelectual and creative practice (documentary, artistic or editorial).

19:30 H. Concierto para apagar by Tres -Concert to turn off-
Tres will perform one of its last "concerts to turn off". The audio from DOROPAEDIA will be the result of this performance, which will be live and recorded placing mics around the venue to register the progressive silence which will take over. The “Conciertos para Apagar -Concerts to turn off” are based on the careful listening of the continuous sound set within the venue during the process of gradually turning off and depending on its function and intensity up to maximum possible level of silence. We will then assist the surgical dissection of the background of our auditory life, the shapeless mass of blows and hums that floods the public, working and domestic spaces where there are running machines. Through a gradual turning off process of all sounds, we will witness the discovery of sound landscape increasingly crisp and sharp in line with increasingly presence of the silence. The final destiny of this sonoric journey is the new milieu  resulting from repositionating silence within its natural threshold.  Now, the quality of listening is perfect.

20:30 H. Projection of El Plan Rosebud 2, 2008 by María Ruido
Within her practical investigation on the collective memory, started with “La memoria interior” -"The inner memory"(2002), María Ruido presents a critical maping on the politics of memory finding testimonies, observing them, dialoguing with them and structuring them, in four parts and three intermidiates, so they question  embedded ideas in the public sphere. This second act of Plan Rosebud addresses the last years of Francoism (and the companies which were born with), transition (as elite agreement) and post (with the explosion of the punk and movida movement) viewed from the knowledge of private individuals and of members of the social movements which emerged   parallel to political parties. The study case in centered in  Galicia, although easily extrapolated to the rest of States, which can be also compared to what was happening in the Great Britain of Thatcher.

LECTURERS

Tres
Multidisciplinary artist focused on the investigation and experimentation with silence. Silence cocktails,  Blackouts or complete turning off of buildings, clandestine actions, videos, exhibitions, installations and all kind of ceremonies are some of the multiple ways that Tres has translated silence in the last 15 years. Today, Tres is focused on the search of a more conceptual mean and less experiential to approach silence. This change of direction mainly follows the interest in considering some negative aspect of this phenomenon which remained unexplored,  mostly those from the political and comunication fields. She is curating  her second and consecutive cycle of exhibitions for Espai del Fundación Joan Miró in Barcelona.
http://elsilencio.com

María Ruído
Videomaker, cultural investigator and producer, developing from 1996 interdisciplinary projects about the social elaboration of the body and its placement within the imaginary of works, as well as the mechanisms of memory construction and its relation with the narrative manner of history. Nowadays,  living in Barcelona where she is professor at the Design and Image Department from Universidad de Barcelona, where she also is part of study groups on representation and its contextual relations.

Fran Meana
is artist and has displayed in exhibition such as: Basado en hechos reales, Artium, Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Antes que todo, CA2M, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Móstoles, Madrid. Everything is out there, La Casa Encendida, Madrid. 89Km., MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo/ CGAC, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela. When asking him about his contribution to Doropaedia, Fran addresses the experience of John Cage in Harvard in the early '50: “In 1951, John Cage visited the anechoic chamber of Harvard University. Cage entered into the chamber expecting to listen to silence, but, instead, he listened two sounds, a high and a low one. When explaining to the sound engineer, he said:
-'The high sound comes from your running nerve system. The low sound comes from your blood circulation.'“

Traficantes de sueños -Dream dealers-
Traficantes de sueños is a polifacetic project constituted in the nineties with the intention to be a space for training, reflection and meetings for alternative and social movements. Seeking to go beyond  that scope, it is intended to play its part to enrich debates, sensibilities and practices which aim at transforming that stage of things. Nowadays, it is composed by a library, a self-manage distributor ‬and an editorial. The essays have Creative Commons license and are available for pdf downloading  at: http://www.traficantes.net/ 

This installment will focus on the legal-philosophical concept of the commons, which refers to all assets that are not privately owned. The commons legislates and defines all assets that may be freely used by all the members of a given community. The commons can be used to describe tangible (forests, squares, etc.) and intangible assets (musical compositions, designs, etc.), as well as social (democracy), natural (ocean floors) and cultural elements (languages), as long as they are publicly and collectively managed.

CD CONTENTS

Music
Antonna
Los Caveles
Prisma en llamas
Wild Honey

Video
Zemos98

Text
Jordi Claramonte

Images
Miguel Brieva

PARTICIPATING BANDS

ANTONNA. Today, technology is advancing at a terrifying pace, and one of the consequences is that nobodies like this guy can record whole albums in their own homes and brazenly offer them to respectable, law-abiding citizens on the web. Accompanied by a raucous drum machine, an acoustic guitar and a moustachioed bassist, Anntona has released En la cama con Anntona, with a style which some have likened to Magnetic Fields and Mojinos Escozíos. Somewhere halfway between these two bands is this incredibly fresh pop pieced together with second-rate rhymes and more than first-rate melodies. Anntona is a good guy and he’s willing to prove it, regardless of who he has to trample on in the process.

LOS CLAVELES. Marcos played the saxophone with Au, but what he really wanted to do was play his own songs, which had a sound somewhere between Golpes Bajos and Josef K, so he started playing with Santos and Jordi, and it turned out that their sound was something more between Monochrome Set and Ciudad Jardín. Later they brought in Papeles and Miguel, and then Papeles and Miguel left and they brought in Sergio, and meanwhile they released two CD-Rs and gave a handful of concerts that won them a lot of fans, because they sound fresh and fun and have a lot of hit songs. 

PRISMA EN LLAMAS. Hugo, formerly of the band Margarita, and Pablo, formerly of Ensaladilla Rusa, are the two halves of Prisma en Llamas. They will soon be releasing an EP with songs that are a perfect genetic cross between Jesus and Mary Chain and El Último de la Fila. They offer us six songs of tension, like a rubber band that is about to break but refuses to snap with the restraint of the satiated glutton. Melodies that slide smoothly into your ears and down to your trachea and stay there, where the acoustics are better. Prisma en Llamas is one of the most agreeable surprises of 2010.

WILD HONEY. The official history of pop tends to tiptoe over a lot of albums which the most obsessive music buffs consider true touchstones. Wild Honey, the title of Guillermo Farré’s project, takes its name from the grossly underrated Beach Boys record – an album of marvellous songs where everything falls discreetly into its proper place. But marvels are never really discreet, and even the slightest effort to listen a bit more closely will soon reveal how great this album truly is. Wild Honey is that kind of band. Epic Handshakes and Bear Hug, Wild Honey’s debut album, features music that practically oozes love. You can hear echoes of Brill Building, The Zombies, early Scott Walker, the Sherman Brothers’ Disney soundtracks, Michel Legrand, Curt Boettcher, bubblegum pop, everything along the line from the upbeat sentimental tunes of American music from the first half of the 20th century to a pocket-size Sufian Stevens and Jens Lekman with an innocent voice and gaze. Dressed-up pop that strives to be beautiful and is: solid tunes, impeccable arrangements and tributes.

CD CONTENTS. www.doropaedia.net

VIDEO SCREENINGS
Produced by Basurama

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
Emmanuel Rodríguez, publisher and researcher for the Metropolitan Observatory.
Carlos Fernandez Liria, Full Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Complutense University of Madrid in the Department of Metaphysics and Knowledge Theory.
Jaime Palomera, anthropologist specialising in the conflict situations which emerged in the Parisian outskirts.

CONCERTS
Margarita
Cohete

CD CONTENTS. www.doropaedia.net

MUSIC

New releases by:

ASTRUD

Intelligence and approachability come together in this duo, capable of combining electronic music with the most acoustic pop and of delivering everything from poignant ballads to dance-floor hits. Immune to fashions and trends, they spearheaded the revival of Spanish electro-pop from the 1980s, but this has never lessened their enthusiasm for the great pop idols or kept them from playing with every conceivable style. Now elevated to historic status, this duo is one of Spain’s best indie music bands.

JOE CREPÚSCULO

Joe Crepúsculo (born Joël Iriarte) is a Spanish singer-songwriter. Though he records as a solo artist, he is also the singer and keyboardist for a band called Tarántula. His work is characterised by unpretentious vocals, profound and surreal lyrics, and homemade instrumental accompaniment, all with a low-fi sound. Another remarkable thing about this artist is that he releases his albums under a Creative Commons licence and posts them on his website for all to enjoy.

Now, after his album SuperCrepus (Producciones Doradas 2008) was hailed by music critics as one of the best Spanish albums of 2008, this October he brings us his third album entitled Chill Out.

LA BIEN QUERIDA

In April 2009, this artist released her debut album Romancero, produced by David Rodríguez (LA ESTRELLA DE DAVID). With seven familiar songs from the rough cut and five new ones, Romancero is one of the most eagerly awaited albums of recent years, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it will be one of the most important in the years to come. Ana asked David Rodríguez (BEEF) to produce her work with the idea of blending the superb creativity of LA ESTRELLA DE DAVID (David’s solo project) with clean sounds adapted to the friendly context of her melodies. The result is that Ana’s songs acquire a unique artistic dimension with David’s sonic inventiveness, and his skill shines brighter than ever when tamed by the naturalistic beauty of Ana’s songs.

This work by LA BIEN QUERIDA is one of the most eagerly awaited releases of Spanish indie-pop of recent years, and this is because everyone fell in love with her demo (chosen as the best of 2007 by Mondo Sonoro, featured in Rockdelux and played hundreds of thousands of times on MySpace, where her page is one of the most visited new artist sites). This album is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about debuts in the history of Spanish indie music.

MANOS DE TOPO

Manos de Topo is a pop band that intones (sur)real Spanish lyrics, a fact which has led some to describe their style as bizarre pop. They recently released their second LP, El primero era mejor [The First One Was Better], and their website offers the following explanation: “The first one was better – or perhaps not, but at least it was less painful.” While the first one raised some blisters, this second album twists the knife in the wound and leaves us convalescing. And while earlier comments highlighted a surrealist intention behind their lyrics, now we have no choice but hyperrealism. A lot of people wondered what Manos de Topo would do next after their acclaimed Ortopedias Bonitas. Well, the answer is here, and we can already hear the ghoulish fascination and a few sharpened pens lurking behind the door. Will they do it again? Even better: they take it one step further.

ESTRAPERLO

In progression. Permeable to any variety of pop music. Like history, Extraperlo doesn’t crawl: it advances by leaps and bounds. This is obvious if we consider how they have managed to mutate an uncomplicated, homegrown indie-pop to achieve the global sound of Desayuno continental. This Barcelona-based quartet has assimilated the variability of their restless pop with the ease of individuals who never tire of learning, of moving forward. Now they confidently stride ahead, absorbing the good and rejecting the bad, and embracing a stylistic crossover that knows no bounds.

VIDEO

VENGA MONJAS

Venga Monjas is the nom de guerre of Xavier Daura and Esteban Navarro, two students dedicated to the quest for intentions. They are both avid fans of the television programme “La Hora Chanante” produced by Paramount Comedy in Spain. Seduced by the absurd humour, bizarre aesthetics and made-up vocabulary of the “chanantes”, they decided to create their own show at home. Just over a year ago, this odd couple began to make home videos for which they did not use predetermined scripts, preferring instead to draw on their own stores of remarkably polished humour. With no particular aim in mind, they began to record, edit and upload the video clips they made to YouTube. Using rather vague yet suggestive titles like “Infancia prohibida” [Forbidden Childhood] or “Los postres de Tia Edwish” (Aunt Edwish’s Desserts), Venga Monjas continued to post a new chapter each month, building up a community of fans who wait with baited breath for a chance to watch the next ripia (what they call any video that can be seen online). There’s not much we can say about the contents of the videos: situations that jump back and forth from the commonplace to the absurd, grotesque skits, skirmishes, and incomprehensible references.

TEXT

DIEGO A. MANRIQUE

Manrique is considered one of the leading authorities on contemporary music in Spain and owns one of the most important music collections in the country.

He started out as a journalist with the weekly Triunfo. Manrique initially contacted the magazine to criticise the poor quality of the articles it published on rock music, and the editors suggested that he send them something better. Manrique accepted the challenge. Soon afterwards, he joined the staff of Radio Castilla in Burgos. In the 1970s and 80s he wrote for magazines such as Vibraciones, Rock Especial, Todas las Novedades and all kinds of other publications, provided they had a page dedicated to rock music.

In 1979-80, he worked with Carlos Tena on Popgrama, a show about the musical avant-garde broadcast by Televisión Española. In the following years they would meet again on the sets of Caja de ritmos (1983), for which Manrique was the screenwriter, and Pop Qué (1984). He also worked as a screenwriter for the television programmes ¡Qué noche la de aquel año! (1987) and FM 2 (1988).

Since 1992, he has hosted the show El Ambigú on Radio 3, a station operated by Radio Nacional de España. He combines this work with writing music reviews for the Spanish daily El País and its Sunday supplement El País Semanal.
Manrique still writes occasionally for the magazine Efe Eme, which he founded, as well as for Rolling Stone.

In May 2008 he was appointed deputy director of Radio 3.

He won the National Ondas Prize for radio in 2001.

In February 2009, he received the Backstage Award from the APM (Association of Spanish Music Producers).

IMAGES

ATLAS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

spectrumatlas.org

The Atlas of Electromagnetic Space is an interactive visualisation of the radio spectrum and a database of artistic and social interventions that have been developed in recent decades which rely on radio technologies. Projects are classified according to the frequency they occupy. The aim of the project is to create a clear and comprehensible visual tool that will allow users to understand how the frequency allocation system is structured and regulated and how it relates to everyday technologies such as radio, television, mobile phones, Wi-Fi networks and many more. But the most important goal of the Atlas is to create an archive of the most important and significant interventions in Hertzian space conceived and implemented by artists, designers, activists, hackers, social movements and other agents of civil society.

We believe that visualising this activity is necessary because it shows how alternative perspectives and interpretations of these technologies, and of the policies that regulate them, enrich their social and cultural potential beyond their designated uses. All of this cultural production is a prime example of how different social forces are demanding a participatory role in the political processes that govern the spectrum, in an arena where the telecommunications industries and the authorities have traditionally called all the shots.

CD CONTENTS. www.doropaedia.net

CONCERTS

Lidia Damunt

En el cementerio peligroso
(Subterfuge Records)

Lidia Damunt is one of the great names in music. And when I say great, I don’t just mean one of the great names in Spain – I mean one of the great names, full stop.

We Spaniards may find it hard to believe that a composer from the beach town of La Manga del Mar Menor has earned the right to rub artistic shoulders with some of the supposedly unapproachable giants of the international scene, but the vertigo we experience when we listen to her songs leaves no room for doubt. Is it really possible that someone like this grew up in our own backyard? With her remarkable debut album En la isla de las Bufandas, Lidia found a unique niche halfway between Nashville (the cradle of country music) and Olympia (the pop capital of DIY culture). Now, with En el cementerio peligroso, she has taken another giant leap forward and made things a bit more difficult for us.

Lidia Damunt writes the songs others wish they could compose, presents the albums others wish they could record, and gives the concerts others wish they could give. So small that she can barely see us. So great because, for a moment, we can barely see anything but her. Roberto Herreros

www.lidiadamunt.com
www.myspace.com/lidiadamunt

GRABBA GRABBA TAPE
(Gssh! Gssh! Records)

GRABBA GRABBA TAPE are the electronic duo from Madrid, comprising Lol-oh-vot on vocals and percussion and Gros-oh-vot on keyboards and vocals.
They have been called the Iberian equivalent of Daft Punk (with a Moranco twist) and their music is simply fantastic: they come on stage dressed like pink snowmen and make music with robotic voices. They have already toured all of Europe several times and their albums have been released in the USA.

The duo were the torchbearers of the new batch of fresh, irreverent bands in Madrid that revolutionised the underground scene.

www.myspace.com/grabbatize
www.gsshgssh.com/GGTweb/

MONTAÑAS MONTAÑAS (7'')
Tres Pies

Montañas is a new Asturian group that has us worked up to a fever pitch of excitement. Their first live performances have already elicited comparisons to Beat Happening, The Feelies and Bananas. In their press release, they say that “in Montañas, we express what we like and what we don’t like about Asturias”. Quite a statement of intent.

On a carefully designed MySpace page, the list of highlighted friends can also furnish important clues about the band’s identity. On the Montañas page, these include Thelemáticos, Anticonceptivas, Chiquita y Chatarra, Grande-Marlaska and Le Mot, to name a few. It is curious to note that many of these bands have at least one member who lives outside Asturias; this may be a reflection of an Asturian generation forced into a diaspora which, in some cases, has served to strengthen ties of friendship and collaboration within bands despite the distance. In the case of Montañas, it has inspired the private jokes used in the song titles. Just explaining the titles would require a whole other entry. For example, the title of the song appearing in the first video, “Yo conduzco, ella me guía” [I Drive, She Guides Me], is taken from a bumper sticker that can be seen on thousands of cars in Asturias and refers to Our Lady of Covadonga (!). Montañas has not yet recorded any tracks other than the 30-second song posted on their MySpace page, but they should – the sooner the better. Iván Conte (La increíble verdad)

www.myspace.com/accidentesgeograficos

“EXPOGRAPHY is the physical-mental-time space in which the fact of seeing and the fact of being seen converge: what we are and what we experience when looking, what we are and what we experience when we are looked at, and what vision is in itself, as something half way between the capacity of the viewer and what emanates from the viewed object. To be activated, any exhibition needs these three terms—the viewer, the viewed and the vision—which, to a certain extent, converge in one single space-time-event-experience.

On the other hand, EXPOGRAPHY is a reflection on the Museum and on Theatre: what happens in each one of these places; the codes governing time and the audience’s relationship with the work imposed by each individual space. We propose the game of altering these codes and experimenting with what is produced as a result. We propose forcing a certain perspective, situating ourselves in places which are physically and temporally different to the usual, and observing the effects these variations produce in us.

The EXPOGRAPHY project takes the form of two totally different works which are the result of the complete deployment of this whole research: COLLECTIVE EXPOGRAPHY and RETROSPECTIVE EXPOGRAPHY. The first work is presented on Saturday 12 January here at CA2M, playing with the temporality of the museum, which requires a commitment from spectators to remain in the museum for the 8 consecutive hours of the experience. In fact, in COLLECTIVE EXPOGRAPHY, people are actually participants and not spectators. Over the duration of this long event, the artistic proposal is mixed with the need to eat, to visit the toilet, to smoke a cigarette and to cohabit the space with others. All these needs are co-opted into the device, which also opens up to other needs and desires. Although apparently very demanding because of the commitment to remain relatively isolated for 8 hours, this experience in fact offers the freedom to leave behind the “prison” of our habits and ways of looking at the world for the duration of the event.

The second work, RETROSPECTIVE EXPOGRAPHY, is more of a “spectacle” or “show” in the conventional meaning of the word, and will be presented one week later, on 17,18 and 19 January at Teatros del Canal.

This research process has been supported and coproduced jointly by CA2M and Teatros del Canal.

What happens when you grow up with a genderless neutral language and then arrive in a country in which everything is gendered? How can we speak of identity when a language has already determined what is masculine and feminine?

This is what the young Iranian artist Sorour Darabi was faced with when s/he arrived in Montpellier to study dance. Her/his mother language, Farsi, has no masculine or feminine forms. French, on the other hand, constantly forced him/her to distinguish between male and female, even in her/his search for his/her own language of movement. Accepting a word thus became a physical test.

Darabi rebelled against this violent form of authority. Farci.e (2016) is an androgynous solo show that flirts with the boundaries of gender, language and sexuality.

Los Teatros del Canal and CA2M are working together in a programme conceived to mark out a shared working space: the body understood as in permanent construction and, accordingly, in permanent conflict. For Sorour Darabi (Shiraz, Iran), the transition of his own body triggers a radical confrontation with the social body: transgender identity uncovers the power of language over bodies, but also the power of the body to threaten the conventions of language.

Sorour Darabi is a self-taught Iranian artist who lives and works in Paris. After working in the underground network in Iran, s/he went on to study at the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) in Montpellier, France.

Last summer, a group of boats set sail from the port of Valparaíso. When they reached open sea, the crew tied the boats with ropes to keep them close together and to recite poetry. A while after the event it was believed that it was the bodies that were holding tightly onto one another with their hands, very close together, in concentric circles so that they would not separate and to keep upright. Caro says that the public held onto the poets so that they would not fall into the sea while reciting.

This summer the mothers died. This summer we burnt the mountains in Madrid and we smelled it all. We extracted its gases in order to incrust a galaxy into the museum in the ceramic skirting board that runs around a large part of the third floor. We dreamed of pouring ourselves into this gap in which the horizontal and the vertical are decided, to cross this edge and to slash open the museum and escape on a flying carpet or on a UFO.

Rodapié Universo (skirting board universe) is a trip to the final horizon; to the ocean, its views and its voices which we conjure up through the architecture of the museum.

Acknowledgments: Toño Naharro, Sergio Muñoz Arriagada, Carlos Cociña, Julieta Marchant and A Cielo Abierto / Festival Internacional de Poesía de Valparaíso.

Limited capacity: 68 people.

CA2M in conjunction with Silvi ManneQueen and Madrid Ballroom Scene wish to invite you to attend a Kiki Ball. Kiki is the less mainstream side to the ballroom scene. Because it is more open, it gives exposure to new members coming onto the scene and offers the audience a chance to take part. A ball is a voguing battle where dancers and artists demonstrate their moves in different categories in front of an international jury.

 If you’ve seen the exhibition Elements of Vogue and love voguing and ballroom culture then you won’t want to miss this ball. But if you haven’t seen it and you love everything about fashion, catwalks, dancing, and want to feel like a model strutting your stuff on the runway, or if you’re into creativity and want to express yourself freely and be who you want to be.... this is also the place for you! You can take part as a competitor or simply enjoy the show as part of the audience: but, simply remember, be who you want to be and once you start looking, you too become part of the show!

This is also a special occasion because it gives us a chance to present for the first time members of the Kiki House of F.A.B, the newly founded international house of artists and voguers based in Madrid.

DRESS CODE / THEME

Borrowing inspiration from the installation made by the NY artist Rashaad Newsome especially for holding balls at CA2M, you will be whisked away to a fabulous world of gemstones, glamour and bling bling whose superficial appearance belies the fact that it is a platform for the radical resistance of dancing bodies.

CATEGORIES

• Runway 
• Virgin Performance
• Realness
• Old way vs. New Way
• Hands Performance
• Best Look of the Night
• Vogue Femme

OTA (open to all, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, etc.).
The order of the categories will be announced at a later date.

Host: Silvi ManneQueen, Mother of the Kiki House of F.A.B, Madrid

Commentator: Matyouz Royalty, New Kiki House of Royalty, Paris

Guest judges:

• Father Typhoon Angels, Kiki House of Angels, Rotterdam (Prodigy)
• Mother Kiara Mermaid, The Supreme House of Mermaids, Paris (Ninja)
• Inxi 007, Sweden (Prodigy)

Participants / Enrolment:

If you want to compete you have to fill in the following form.

Enrolment is free and open until 16 January

REGISTRATION

Enrolment free, open until 16 January

Maximum 3 categories

The organisation reserves the right to consider a category to be full when a sufficient number of participants have enrolled. 

The idea is to motivate people to enrol in other categories. So, don’t waste your time and enrol now!
If you have any doubts on categories and dress codes, send an email to: madridballroomescene@gmail.com 

Description of categories and themes for dress codes

Choose whichever suits you best, become who you want to be, take part and hope the judges give you 10s! The sky is the limit! However, we have provided some guidelines for looks for each category.

OTA RUNWAY: Pearls and Diamonds

The INSPIRATION for this category is for Pearls and Diamonds to sparkle on the runway. This is your chance to be a real model without conforming to stereotypes or canons. But remember, this is not a fancy dress ball. Creativity, elegance and Xtravaganza are the watchwords. Slay the Catwalk!
To get your 10s, you need to wear:
- European Runway : Headpiece (ornamental headdress)
- American Runway : Handbag (bag, purse, briefcase)
All participants will walk individually. The judges will then choose who moves on to the battle phase, where two participants walk at the same time, ballroom style. The judges will be looking for runway technique.

HANDS PERFORMANCE: Pyrite (Gold/Silver)
Show us what you can do in hands performance inspired by pyrite, fool’s gold. Look to its angles, cuts, sparkle and details for the elements on which to base your polished technique and smooth moves. Protect your hands with gloves, and cover your arms with golden or silver details, to tell us your dazzling story.

BEST LOOK OF THE NIGHT: Sapphires and/or Rubies (Spectators and participants)

This is the moment to show off the most fabulous look of the night and dazzle with your style. To take part in this event you don’t have to walk, you just show off your look, the one that shows the real you. This category has no set rules; all you have to do is take your inspiration from precious gemstones like rubies and sapphires. Remember that judges in this category will be looking at all details: hairstyle, accessories, jewellery, etc. and your ability to sell your look.

The public can take part. So if you feel up to it on the night, you could win this category, though you have to bear in mind the dress code. You don’t have to sign up beforehand.

Dress up and pass yourself off with INSPIRATION from the installation created expressly by Rashaad Newsome for the exhibition “Elements of Vogue” at CA2M, where the Kiki ball will be held. Whether your choice is Bling Bling, Banji or Hip Hop you have to convince the judges with your realness and swag. And don’t forget, it’s not just a case of dressing up.

This category was originally created in the ballroom scene to acknowledge people’s ability to “pass” unnoticed in wider society at a time when being Black or Latino and LGBT was by no means easy. For instance, the challenge for a gay male was to “pass” for being as straight as possible and gain access to the same privileges in society, like getting a job. Or, for a transsexual, the challenge was to be as “real” as possible and return home safely without getting beaten up. This category is broken down into different kinds of Realness: Thug Realness, School Boy, Transman Realness, Femme Queen Realness, Butch Realness, Butch Queen Up in Drag Realness (BQUID), etc.

OTA VIRGIN PERFORMANCE: Pink Quartz

You love voguing and are thinking about walking but don’t have the experience? There’s always a first time for everyone! And, if you’re reading this category, maybe now it’s your turn. Don’t think twice. Prepare a look based on the virginity and purity of Pink Quartz, and show the judges your wild side.

Any style of voguing is welcome (Old way, New Way, Vogue Femme, but without mixing them up). For first-timers only.

VOGUE FEMME: Holographic Opal

This much-awaited category shines with a light of its own. If you’ve ever taken part in a kiki or ball, now’s your chance to dazzle the judges with your Holographic Opal look. Opal is the “Artist’s Stone” because of its ability to bring out hidden talents and the whole spectrum of the rainbow.

Use the visual effects and sparkle of the opal and add your own walk to outshine everyone else, whether it’s through dramatics or soft and cunt, and show those judges how versatile you are.

To get 10s, your walk has to include a prop and one or more colours of the rainbow. Be creative! Besides your attire, judges will be looking at your walk technique, elements and charisma before giving away any 10s.

If you have any doubts or questions about categories or dress codes please send an email to: madridballroomescene@gmail.com

You are invited to attend the Ball with a look inspired by one of the options. Please pay attention because there will be a category in which you can decide to take part on the very day of the Ball. Follow the event on Facebook, where you’ll find photos to inspire looks and attire.

Storyboard P is a dancer raised in Brooklyn. It would be an understatement to say that he goes beyond street dance. His style of dancing even challenges the most elementary laws of physics, defying gravity and moving in such counterintuitive ways that one can only assume that his body acts as a portal into another dimension. An Afrofuturist universe where time and space fold under the dancing feet.

Storyboard has defined his dance style as “mutant”, drawing inspiration from a variety of subcultural forms as heterogeneous as Jamaican dancehall, flexing from his native Brooklyn, West Coast krumping, the Old Way voguing that LGTB teens used to dance at the Christopher Street pier, or even the mechanical movements of stop-motion animation. His voracious curiosity has led him to collaborate with artists and filmmakers including Kahlil Joseph, Arthur Jafa, Flying Lotus and Jay-Z.

For his performance at CA2M, Storyboard P will alternate between freestyle improvisation and storytelling, exploring the body as a source of empowerment and self-affirmation in the face of loss and structural violence.

This performance will weave together biography, survival, and urban science fiction.

Free entrance until full capacity is reached

This performance has been organised on the occasion of Madrid’s international contemporary art fair, ARCOmadrid 2018, whose curatorial programme this year gravitates around the question of The Future.