Gravedad
A performance by Carlos Motta
(video of the dress rehearsal on 12/3/2024)

Gravedad is a live performance by artist Carlos Motta and eight Miami-based performers, commissioned by El Espacio 23 for the opening of its exhibition “Mirror of the Mind,” on Thursday, December 5th at 10am in the Allapattah warehouse.

Developed in collaboration with the performers, “Gravedad” presents a sequence of actions where the performers find cautious and tender ways to hold, carry, and endure the weight of their bodies for as long as they are able, creating scenes of sustained endurance. Set to an electronic musical soundtrack designed by Dani F. Amaro Rio with Luisa Lemgruber, the work asks the question: What does it take to support a life?

“Gravedad” uses Motta’s homonymous 5-part drawing—recently acquired by the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, and on view in the exhibition—as a performance score. The drawing depicts a scorched landscape where hundreds of humans urgently care for one another. The figures attentively hold, carry, and drag each other, visibly dealing with the weight of the bodies but determined to help each other persist amidst a dry desert where only a few patches of green grass suggest the hope of survival. Motta and performers produce a work that builds upon the themes of care, endurance, weight, gravity, and survival.

Performers
Enrique Villacreses
Haiwen
Harmony Honig
Jeffrey Caballero
Maria Burt
misael soto
Nat Ebanks Sassine
Sabrín Feels

Sound Design by
Dani F. Amaro with Luisa Lemgruber

Produced by
GeoVanna Gonzalez

Commissioned by El Espacio 23, December 2024

Video by Marilyn Loddi and Bill Bilowit