On the occasion of Tatiana Trouvé's exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, choreographer, dancer and artist La Ribot presents her performance Juana ficción (2024) in the museum's atrium, in collaboration with the Spanish conductor Asier Puga, with original music by Iñaki Estrada.
The scope of this work transcends both the physical space in which the piece takes place and the themes it addresses. An intoxicating and fragile concert that navigates between dance and music, light and darkness.
Juana ficción (2024) is dedicated to Juana I of Castilla, Queen of Castile and Aragon during the 16th century, who was imprisoned for over forty years for her alleged madness. In contrast to a romanticised representation of her life, La Ribot's performance with Juan Loriente focuses instead on the manipulation and erasure from official history of which Juana I of Castilla fell victim and muses on what her mental universe might have been, on the margins of the world, in the relentless repetition of identical days.
In tribute to the queen's taste for the musical innovations of her time, in Juana ficción (2024) ancient music meets contemporary electronic music, creating a dialogue between dance and music, technology and history.
This sound and visual experience reveals the fate of Joan of Castile, a trapped modern woman whose impossible escape will inspire stories throughout history. La Ribot tells her story in movement in an exceptional scenographic and solar cycle. Using a video from her 1991 show, El Triste que nunca os vido, which also refers to the queen, the work captures the abyss of time and its imprint on the body. A narrative suspended in time through music and dance, this piece carries with it the idea of an ephemeral present, of a passage from day to twilight, from splendor to oblivion.
