The greatest fear of any artist, creator, or human being, is failure. The overwhelming idea of success, of overcoming through repeated blows and pressure intensifies the fear of falling into the abyss of frustration.
The performance Yo sé perder, by Marc Caellas and Esteban Feune de Colombi, tries to stage this rejection and failure within a society where only success is valued. The work arrives for the first time at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid with performances on March 3 and 4: the first, around the failures towards or from the world of contemporary art, and the second about society's rejection of the sacred plants.
The structure of the function is simple: a staging with two guests who share the same feeling of rejection. In each piece, dance, music, philosophy and poetry coexist while the creations of the guests that have been discarded are placed on the table.
The first work will feature the participation of the artist Isidoro Valcárcel Medina with his commitment, not always accepted or understood, and together with the journalist Desirée Rubio de Marzo. The cycle will close on Saturday addressing the rejection of sacred plants by Western society, with the participation of the conservationist and activist for the Amazon, Magdalena Ruiz, and the writer and director of hemp magazine, Fidel Moreno.
I know how to lose arose as something personal, the result of creating many proposals that were being rejected" the two artists explained to La Vanguardia during their train trip to the capital. "And from there arose the possibility of opening up the game, of being a little the channel or medium of rejections from people who also work in other disciplines. A proposal that was rejected means a little success somewhere," says Feune de Colombi.
Each function is unique and unrepeatable. There are no two pieces that are repeated, and that "presents a risk and a great difficulty", explains Feune de Colombi, who adds that "it is also part of the philosophy of this work". The new cycle also presents another challenge: "Both functions are totally different from the previous ones carried out and also from each other. We give ourselves a bit to uncertainty", confesses Caellas.
Life is full of small failures. You want to eat an ice cream but the ice cream parlor is closed. The lack of an important paper, a signature. Yo sé perder intends to share these small, large or medium rejections and make them part of the path of life. But how do you overcome failure?
"You have to adopt a balanced, non-reactive attitude, where you accept what is presented to you and move on," says Feune de Colombi, just after losing coverage due to a failure in the telephone networks.
In our society there is a binary to comfortably generalize about what is beautiful or ugly, a rejection or triumph, if it is white or black. Feune de Colombi sets aside the duality of success or failure to qualify the performance of I know how to lose. "The ideal is to find those formats in which to renew daring, risk and place them together with other people to do what we like," adds the artist.
There is little more than a day left to start the new cycle and polish the last details, given the uncertainty of these two functions, completely different from the previous ones. "At times I'm excited and at times a little nervous. But it's about letting go," confesses Caellas, "there's nothing left but to jump, and let's hope there's water in the pool."
