A escala humana

Exhibition

 A escala humana is one of the most important solo exhibitions dedicated to La Ribot in her hometown of Madrid. Featuring both visual and choreographic work, the exhibition is curated by Olivier Kaeser.

Accompanied by the performers of La Ribot Ensemble, a core group of recent and long-standing collaborators, the choreographer presents six weeks of live shows in the Sala Alcalá 31 exhibition hall. It is a unique opportunity to discover iconic performances from her repertoire, as well as a new piece, created for the exhibition. The show opens with Laughing Hole (2006), a six-hour performance whose provocative cardboard signs and obsessive laughter have been shaking gallery walls around the world for more than fifteen years. LaBOLA (2022), a new work created for A escala humana will premiere on 1 March and be on view every day until the end on the exhibition. The piece depicts a world in constant mutation, in a swirling exchange of objects and clothing.

For the first time, the three installations Walk the Chair (2010), Walk the Bastards (2017) and Walk the Authors (2018 – ongoing) will be presented together. With the addition of some twenty new chairs, they now form a huge family of more than 90 pyrographed chairs. And like these chairs — “very used, having been sat on by thousands of people to watch movies in open-air cinemas, at weddings and baptisms, to look at other people, or to read” as the artist describes them — the exhibition is populated with modest, worn and fragile objects and materials with which La Ribot has always had an affective relationship.

Although they were created over a span of almost twenty years, in the videos Despliegue (2001), Cuarto de Oro (2008) and ROJO (2020), La Ribot continues exploring her concept of “corps opérateur”: a single sequence shot with a handheld camera. Through this approach, the artist shows us fragmented worlds and attempts to convey the experience of dance. In Cuarto de Oro, for example, one can almost hear the heartbeat of the famous flamenco artist Cristina Hoyos, whose lively and reminiscent dance is captured in the video.

The composition of polaroid photos Otra Narcisa (2003) and the notebooks on display on the upper floor take us through more than thirty years of La Ribot’s work. The artist invites the spectators/visitors on a journey to the heart of her archives and her creative process.

The exhibition synthetizes many elements from La Ribot’s transdisciplinary practice. While she defines herself primarily as a contemporary dance artist, each one of the works presented here is grounded in her search for plasticity, the incorporation of textual, graphic and sound language and a multiplicity of objects and costumes, offering a comprehensive overview of her practice. Throughout her career, La Ribot has never ceased to reinvent her relationship with spectators/visitors. With the desire to establish a close bond with the public, “on a human scale”, she invites them to partake directly in action, contemplation, and transformation.

Opening hours

Tue-Sat: 11 am – 8:30 pm / Sun: 11 am – 2 pm / Closed on Mondays
From February 23 to 26, the exhibition will be open until 9:30 pm.

Live performances program

Laughing Hole (2006)
With Olivia Csiky Trnka, Delphine Rosay, Mathilde Invernon, Lisa Laurent, Piera Bellato and Fernando de Miguel
Saturday February 19 – 4-10 pm
Exhibition opening

Pièce distinguée N°45 (2016)
With La Ribot and Juan Loriente
From Wednesday February 23 to Saturday 26 – 8:30 pm

LaBOLA (2022)
With Piera Bellato, Mathilde Invernon, Lisa Laurent, Juan Loriente, Thami Manekehla, Ludovico Paladini
From Tuesday March 1 to Sunday April 3
Tue-Sat – 7 pm
Sunday – 12 pm