Háblame, cuerpo is part of Looking for Pepe, a study begun by Nazario Díaz in 2016 with the starting point of the Cordoba-born artist Pepe Espaliú (1955-1993), branching into a series of investigations of the body, language and territory. Háblame, cuerpo takes its title (speak to me, body) from the text which Juan Vicente Aliaga wrote for the exhibition in the Pabellón Mudéjar of Sevilla in tribute to Espaliú in 1994, a year after his death from AIDS. The study of Espaliú and how he developed links between his work and his situation, marked by the disease, at a time of social and political transformation, inspired a work around matter which changes or disappears, and the idea of wearing away and restraint of a body understood as a physical and social existence.
“I propose an act of resistance which links aspects such as the phonetic transformation of my vocal flow, the notion of circularity, and the idea of erasure through insistence; placing my body in collision with language and with a certain desire for oscillation between geographies and identities.”
Nazario Díaz
Nazario Díaz (Linares, Jaén) mainly works in the field of the performing arts, focusing on the tension generated between the body, the gaze, and writing. He forms part of Vértebro, together with Juan Diego Calzada and Ángela López, with whom he curated the Beautiful Movers festival in Cordoba. Taking a Master’s degree in theatre practice and visual culture at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, ARTEA and the Museo Reina Sofía gave him the critical context for the project Looking for Pepe, which gathers his previous interests around two central concepts: presence and resistance. He has performed with Jorge Gallardo, Isaak Erdoiza, and Societat Doctor Alonso, among others. Since the end of 2018, in Bilbao, he takes part in two collective learning contexts: PICA, an intensive programme assisting a temporary community of artists and researchers in Azala (Vitoria-Gasteiz), led by Idoia Zabaleta and Luciana Chieregati, and the Coletivo Qualquer programme Invitación, which researches and shares methodologies and tools from the field of the live arts.
His work has been institutionally supported and presented in contexts such as Terrassa Noves Tendències (Barcelona), Reims Scenes d’Europe (France), Encuentro Internacional de Artes Vivas de Tlalpan (Mexico City), Naves Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas (Madrid), Graner/Festival sâlmon< (Barcelona), Azkuna Zentroa/Alhóndiga (Bilbao), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (MNCARS, Madrid) or La Academia de España en Roma (Italy).
He currently lives between Bilbao and Lisbon, where he is developing the projects Otro borrado a través de la insistencia, a solo work in the advanced performing arts creation programe curated by João Fiadeiro for Forum Dança (Lisbon), and Conversation pieces with the Basque choreographer Isaak Erdoiza, investigating sound relating to choreography.
