An image from the inside

In the performance space, set up as a contemporary art gallery exposition, two men are seen hanging an abstract painting that visitors will soon encounter. From the outset, the Spanish collective El Conde de Torrefiel seeks to reveal the mechanics of creating theatrical fiction right before the audience’s eyes. Using associations, symmetries of signs and forms, and sharp, concise dramaturgy, they invite us to hear the thoughts of the characters – or perhaps our own – witnessing fiction as it transforms into new forms, or perhaps into reality.

With firm and calm guidance, the creators lead the audience on a journey to explore the relationship between fiction and reality. They reveal that the main component of the theatrical mechanism is our imagination, prompting us to question whether, in a civilization inundated with images, blinded with their abundance and resolution, we are still capable of distinguishing fiction from reality.

The renowned Spanish duo, Tanya Beyeler and Pablo Gisbert, embark on creating An image from the inside as “a poetic task that explores the fundamental principles of the concept of fiction, constantly challenging the indisputable law of gravity to which bodies are subject.”

An image from the inside, as implied by its title, is an abstract work that argues that reality is not solid, stable and immutable as we expect it to be. According to the creators, it is prone to transformation or fragmentation at any moment, particularly when confronted with war, pandemics, or natural disasters. It is a piece of visual theatre that navigates the delicate balance between dream and reality, consciousness and subconsciousness.

Artists about An image from the inside

“What is reality?”
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

(Philip Dick)

The word “reality”, a term with a certain prestige but increasingly difficult to grasp, appeared in human language relatively recently – just over 1,000 years ago. The Greeks didn’t have a word for this condition; instead, individual and collective existence was governed by the fantastic logic of myths. These stories, constructed through a process that articulated internal forces, produced extraordinary images that concretely affected consciences, guiding people in material life.

This work aims to translate onto the stage the image of a parallel and subterranean story, revealing the effects of what lies within the folds of material life and the gaps and paths that ghostly traverse existence. It explores that layer below the surface, which speaks about humans both individually and collectively.

El Conde de Torrefiel

El Conde de Torrefiel is a Barcelona-based duo comprised of playwrights Tanya Beyeler and Pablo Gisbert. Their aim is to understand the connections between the rationality and significance of language-determined things, alongside the abstraction of concepts, the imaginary, and the symbolic in relation to the image. Their creations seek a visual and textual aesthetic where theatre, choreography, literature, and visual arts coexist, with a focus on the 21st century and the existing relationship between the personal and the political. Their theatre reinstates the fourth wall, facilitating a return to collective sensuality: they aim not to touch audience members directly but to evoke their engagement, reinstating their role as active witnesses, attuned to their reception, and as close as possible to their sensations and impressions. While their theatre reports on the contemporary world, it refrains from presenting dogmatic thinking or political analysis, as they believe “works should not close by postulating, but open by questioning.” Their theatre is one of emotion, poetry, and the present, allowing subjectivities to exist freely amidst the demanding ambiguities of contemporary collective life.

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With the support of ICEC – Generalitat de Catalunya; TEM Teatre Musical de Valencia; Centro Párraga de Murcia.

Coproduction: Wiener Festwochen (Vienna); Festival d’Avignon; Grec Festival (Barcelona); Conde Duque (Madrid); Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels); Le Grütli – Centre de production et de diffusion des Arts vivants (Geneva); Teatro Piemonte Europa / Festival delle colline Torinesi (Turin); Points communs – Nouvelle Scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise – Val d’Oise; Festival d’Automne à Paris; La Villette (Paris).