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| Organized Movement | |||
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A 45-min documentary, produced during the residential workshop and for the resulting exhibition, ‘Localismos’, Perros Negros, Mexico City, May 2004. |
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| Mexico City, May 2004 |
"Centro Historico" |
Mexico's historical city center |
is undergoing a radical transformation |
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This bustling site for commerce, crime, and cultural production |
is currently being renovated. The spotlight is on and much is at stake |
for here is where the rich come to connect with their traditions |
and where the poor aspire the modernity. |
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As artists we are the jokers in the game. |
Invited to convey a personal experience from this unique place, |
by living here for one month, we have the ability |
to both salvage its history, and contribute to its disappearance . |
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'We', are twenty artists from Canada, USA, Poland, Sweden, France, UK, |
Columbia, Ecuador, and Mexico. Gathered here by the young art- |
organization 'Perros Negros', to work on inverting the worn notion of the uniform |
'global', in order to define a variety of productive local strategies instead. |
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We call it, 'Localismos'. |
The girl says, 'I want to do something different', |
and the guy says, "Go to Localismos! you know what is Localismos?" |
"It sounds a bit 'cultural', but it's gonna be GREAT!" |
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Do you want us to break this?! |
Localismos! Locaaaaalismooooos! |
"20 artists, 20 ways to see 'Centro Historico'." |
CULTURAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! |
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Adriana is one of the curators. She is also a singer, an architect, |
a graphic artist, an interior decorator, a fine artist, and a photo model. |
Tonight she is getting ready for her performance in a local nightclub |
and she is looking for a suitable outfit to wear. |
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This is me, I am sitting at 'Vips' and working on the transcripts for this video. |
My original proposal for "Localismos" was to take all kinds of Latin Dance |
classes and to see as many dance performance as I probably could. |
As I don't speak Spanish, it seemed a good way to connect with local people, |
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so to engage with Mexican custom. |
BANG, BANG, BANG! |
BANG, BANG, BANG! |
clap, clap, clap... |
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clap, clap, clap... |
one, |
two, |
and three |
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one, two, three and four! |
five six, seven, eight! |
and one, two, three, four! |
five, six, seven, eight! |
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Despite the enjoyment I get from any form of dancing, |
and the pleasure I have from watching other people dance, |
I find the experience of formal training especially stifeling and humiliating. |
Being new in a class and not fitting it, |
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must count to one of the most common human experiences of alienation. |
In addition to this, the role of being a student, |
is to be a constant failure in relation the standards set by the teacher. |
As long as there is a descriptive 'right' way to move, |
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all other options are naturally 'wrong'! |
But taking community instead as a starting point for spontaneous |
movement, where there is no expertise, where nothing can be wrong, |
since everything is right, |
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and where everyone is welcome |
contributor and interpreter, |
the best things happens: |
New dances are born! |
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Tipos Mexicanos |
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" If I had the chance, I'd ask the world to dance, " |
" I am dancing by myself", |
" Well, there's nothing to lose, and there's nothing to prove, " |
" I am dancing by myself", |
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This is my favorite song. |
How does it go? |
Aaaah! |
This is my favorite song too! |
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Everything that is alive moves, but not all movement organized. |
How does organization happen? |
Who decides what it should be and what it is worth? |
Can you do something synchronized? Put your legs the same way! |
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Perfect! Now hold each other! |
And move like you are dancing! Beautiful! |
Can you do something synchronized? Put your legs the same way! |
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Perfect! Now hold each other! |
And move like you are dancing! Beautiful! |
Being in latin America for the first time in my life, the world truly feels |
upside-down. I still can't speak the language. but I do feel that I have |
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experienced some depth of this cultural through its many forms of dance. |
It is all comprehensible to me because all dance is, |
essentially, organized movement. |
But then again, |
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organized movement, |
is so much more than just dance |
You can say anything you want! Speak to the world! |
Say something, say anything! This will be worldwide distribution! |
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Everybody wants to live in peace around the world. |
THANK YOU! |
" Turn around, " |
" Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit lonely, " |
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" Turn around. Every now and then I fall apart, " |
" Turn around, bright eyes, " |
" And I need you tonight. I need you more than ever! " |
You can say anything you want to the world. It will be worldwide distribution. |
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This is Luisa. My first Latin Dance teacher. |
She asks me if I am taking Latin Dance classes in order to meet a Latin man? |
I did meet my Latin man through all my observation of movement. We made eye- |
contact high above the city skyline. But there is only one problem, |
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He has rabbit ears and wears skirt. |
"I don't know how to love him, What to do, how to move him," |
"I don't know how to love him. He's a man. just a man," |
"I don't know how to love him. he scares me so, I want him so." |
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Betty is from Columbia |
She is visiting the international art fair |
but she can't get a visa to the USA. |
So much for globalization. |
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I came to this party with my friend, Erick. |
Neither one of us likes the music or the performances on stage very much. |
So we stay under it, |
and watch the audience instead , |
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Because these people are so unoriginal in their dress codes |
and unconscious in their generic behavior, |
we completely lose any sense of being in Mexico City. |
Erick says they all look Japanese to him. An army of consumers. |
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I think I need to speak with Tatsuo about Japanese dance. |
Japanese dance is like this, very traditional. |
Traditional??!! |
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Dance is useful for so many things. It can be a salvage for broken relationships. |
It can be a metaphor for never to be realized relationships. |
Ot it can be an initiation to possible relationships. |
It connects you with yourself, |
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and it creates community. |
On the cardboard, |
Dance on the cardboard! |
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Pablo is working on his Ph. D. |
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Thank you to all my new friends and dance teachers. |
THE END. |
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texts on Organized Movement: |
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