We’ve been together since 2014. Our work has become interwoven with our relationship, starting from intimacy to explore representations of collectivity that question hegemonic ways of belonging and of narrating ourselves. By using speculative fiction as a worlding tool, we create spaces in which domesticity, marginality and desire converge.
We like to think of the queer family/art collective we both conform as a plastic entity: it contracts and expands to include relatives, collaborators, friends, lovers, viruses, ghosts and other companions.
Our films, performances and installations can be accessed from many entry points. For example, our first collaborative project, Introducing the Star, materialized as a a film diary, a dance solo and a music album. It’s a queer sci-fi narration about our HIV infection, so it mutates as quick as our virus does. Songs of Hain, our second project together, is a two hours long expanded documentary film based on the Hain ceremony: the main cultural manifestation of the Selknam people in Tierra del Fuego (Chile and Argentina). The project reflects on how patriarchal power strategies are entangled with the colonial gaze of European anthropology.
In our work we seek a certain suspension of disbelief in order to elaborate new and safe ways of entangling with each other in conflict and collaboration, enabling new patterns of action and affect. “Narrarse es cuidarse", we tell each other: “to narrate ourselves is to take care of ourselves”. Throughout this research on transindividual narratives we have approached practices as diverse as synchronized swimming or role-playing-games:
Dragon, rest your head on the seabed merges synchronized swimming and marine mythology to tell a story of hydrofeminism and watery communities. Draconis Lacrimae is a performance based on a fantasy role playing game. The game, designed by us, uses intimacy and autofiction as the tools of resistance against predefined categories of identity. Speculative narration becomes our technique of transformation and orientation in a world saturated with such categories.
Federico Vladimir Strate Pezdirc
Buenos Aires, 1983
Pablo Esbert Lilienfeld
Madrid, 1981
EDUCATION
Federico Vladimir
2021
A.PASS (Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies). Artistic Research Postgraduate, Brussels, BE
2012
MA Visual Communication-Moving Images, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2006
BA Audiovisual Communication, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ES
Pablo Lilienfeld
2018
MA Research Studios, P.A.R.T.S. Brussels, BE
2006
BA Audiovisual Communication, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ES
2005
BA in Contemporary Dance by the Royal Dance Conservatory Madrid, ES
TEACHING
Federico Vladimir
2012-2014
Visiting Lecturer, Visual Communication Royal College of Art, London, UK
Pablo Lilienfeld
2012-2022
Visiting lecturer of Dance and Technology at the Dance Conservatory of Madrid, ES
2020-2021
Guest Lecturer, Institute del Teatre, Barcelona, ES
EXHIBITIONS AND FESTIVALS
2022
-Dangerous When Wet. Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhague, DK
-Draconis Lacrimae. Bâtard Festival, Brussels, BE
-Dragon, rest your head on the seabed. Hauser & Wirth, Festival Piedraviva, Menorca, ES
2021
-Draconis Lacrimae. Me gustas pixelad_ La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES
-Book Launch Draconis Lacrimae The Player’s Habdbook, A.pass End Presentations, De Markten, Brussels, BE
2020
-Dragon, rest your head on the seabed. Loom Festival, Barcelona, ES (cancelled)
-Dangerous When Wet. Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhague, DK (postponed)
2019
-Dragon, rest your head on the seabed. Santancargelo Festival, IT
-Beneath the seabed, a dragon (site-specific). Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, ES
-Hydra. MACBA, Festival Salmon, Barcelona, ES
-Hydra. Tribuna Pública, A Coruña, ES
-Link in Bio. Teatro Pradillo, Madrid, ES
-Songs of Hain. Festival Haizebegi, Bayonne, FR
-Positive, CineClube Anjos70, Lisboa, PT
2018
-Monitoring, Kasseler DokFest, Kassel, DE
-Dragon, rest your head on the seabed. Festival Veranos de la Villa, Madrid, ES
-Cantos del Hain. Museo Salvador Allende y NAVE, Santiago de Chile, CL
-Tradiciones Subvertidas, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES
-Miradas País, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, ES
-WOMB, CA2M, Móstoles, ES
2017
-Songs of Hain. MAC Gas Natura Fenosa, A Coruña, ES
-PSY Hysteria, Kunstraum, London, UK
-Introducing the Star, Escenas do Cambio, Santiago de Compostela, ES
-Zoinks!, Sant Andreu Contemporani, Barcelona, ES
-Introducing the Star, Queer Lisboa, PT
2016
-Songs of Hain. NAVE, Santiago de Chile, CL
-Introducing the Star. La plaza en verano, Matadero, Madrid, ES
-Introducing the Star. Sala Hiroshima, Barcelona, ES
-Introducing the Star. Leal-Lav, La Laguna, ES
-Introducing the Star. Teatro Pradillo, Madrid, ES
-SeMente, Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, ES
2015
-Introducing the Star. Festival Madrid en Danza, Madrid, ES
-EJECT. Centro Juan de Salazar, Asunción, PY
-EJECT. Festival VDBA, Buenos Aires, AR
-EJECT. Dança em Transito, Rio de Janeiro, BR
-EJECT. TEFAF, Maastricht, NL
2014
-The Red Blinder, Leyden Gallery, London, UK
-Proyecto Moscú, Es Baluard, Mallorca, ES
-Proyecto Moscú, CGAC, Santiago Compostela, ES
-Gender Travel. MNCARS, Madrid, ES
-Daba Pruft. MKII, Londres, UK
-Going Nowhere Together. La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES
-EDIT. La Fundición, Bilbao, ES
2013
-Veraneantes. MARCO, Vigo, ES
-In the future we will all be deer. Espacio El Palomar, Barcelona, ES
-Proyecto Moscú. MAC, A Coruña, ES
-EJECT. La Alhóndiga, Bilbao, ES
-EJECT. La Fundición, Sevilla, ES
2012
-Henry Hudson and his son. Cinéma du Réel 2012, Centre Pompidou, París, FR
-Royal College of Art Screening, British Film Institute, London, UK
-Humanimal: The Feast. Henry Moore Gallery, RCA, London, UK
-Atelier, PACT Zollverein, Essen, DE
-EDIT. FIDCU, Montevideo, UR
-EDIT. El Grec, Barcelona, ES
-EDIT. Aerowaves, B-Motion, Bassano del Grappa, IT
2011
-EDIT. Madrid en Danza, Madrid, ES
-EDIT. Ciclo Cuerpo e Imagen. La Alhóndiga, Bilbao. ES
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2020
-Dance and Theater Production Grant Madrid Arts Council
2019
-Contemporary Artistic Creation Grant from Madrid City Council
2017
-UBU Theater Awards, Italy. Finalist Music Score category
-Fundación SGAE scholarship
2016
-Miquel Casablancas Project Award. Finalist
-Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation Artistic Grant
2015
-Dance and Theater Production Grant Madrid Arts Council
2011
-Auditorio de Galicia Young Artists Award. First Prize
2010
-INJUVE Youg Creation Project Award
-MAN Photography Prize, Runner up
2007
-INJUVE Youg Creation. Finalist
RESIDENCIES
2022
-Residencias Paraíso, AGADIC, Colectivo RPM, ES
-La Poderosa, Barcelona, ES
2020
-Kunstencentrum BUDA, Kortrijk, BE
-Workspacebrussels, Brussels, BE
-WP Zimmer, Amberes, BE
2018
-Residencias Paraíso, AGADIC, Colectivo RPM, ES
2017
-TanzHaus, Zurich, CH
2016
-NAVE, Santiago de Chile. CL
2015
-Residency OYO, Zeimiai, Lituania, LT
2014
-La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES
-CA2M, Móstoles, ES
2012
-PACT Zollverein, Essen, DE
2011
-ChoreoRoam Europe, ES, IT, UK, HR, NL
PUBLICATIONS
2021
- Draconis Lacrimae - The Player’s Handbook; a.pass; Brussels
2019
-Esbert Lilienfeld P, La Ribot, Paz
Rojo, Dora García, Juan Domínguez et al; DANZA-FICCIÓN; pp
33-54; “Conversaciones, anotaciones y dramaturgia en las artes vivas:
España y Uruguay”; Estuario Ed; Montevideo
-Laborde D ed.; “Haizebegi. Revue annuelle d’Anthropologie de la Musique”; Munduko Musiken Etxea; Bayonne
-Universidad Popular. Alimentar la quimera. Jornada 4: CÓMO ENGENDRAR A TU DRAGÓN; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo; Madrid
2017
-Strate Pezdirc FV; SONGS OF HAIN CATALOGUE; pp 151-224; MAC Gas Natural Fenosa; A Coruña
2015
-Simón A ed.; pp 201-209; “Desiderata”; Desiderata Editorial; Madrid