Manual del Cante Manual [Manual of Manual Cante] is an interpretation of the concept of an archive that interprets the Lorca legacy as a spiral that connects to different times, places, and agents at different speeds, allowing for new archivistic entities to emerge. The project stems from the piece (exhibited here) Enrique Morente (Alegrías) 2001 (2021), that Luis Mengs created for the exhibition La vista y el tacto [Sight and Touch], curated by Francisco Ramallo at the Centro Federico García Lorca in 2021. The exhibition compiled documents from the archive related to sight and touch, including Lorca’s drawing of the same name, which were placed in dialogue with different contemporary practices.
Manual of Manual Cante operates as a form of archivistic device that channels the movements of the hands during cante, to allow for different interactions between this and the dance which the pieces inspire, with the aim of building a second ‘archive’ based on choreography.
Meanwhile, the idea is also to create an open and mobile archivistic device, that moves to grow in other hands, occupying different exhibition spaces around the country and functioning on two planes of time. Firstly, deployed in an exhibition space as a manual in video format, turning the location into a kind of studio. On a second plane, the choreographer establishes a relationship between the pieces to create a new choreography constructed and guided by the movement of the hands, generated from the cante. At its opening, the resultant choreography takes form before the audience, while it is recorded to be entered into the second ‘archive’ of choreographies and subsequently be projected at a second location while it is on display. The first resultant piece is currently exhibited at the auditorium here at the Centro Federico García Lorca.
Manual of Manual Cante thus becomes a form of ‘guideline’ without borders. Based on a rhythmical oscillation, from the creation of a classification to material that is resistant to storage, this ‘manual/archive’ provokes a game between a mute cante, hands portraying different palos, genders, ages, or geographical locations, and the body that choreographs them, that dresses and undresses at each event thanks to the video-document.
A project by Fundación Federico García Lorca for Consorcio Centro Federico García Lorca.
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