“HAMMAM” work in Valparaíso Cultural Park

“HAMMAM” work in Valparaíso Cultural Park

• Valparaiso Cultural Park, Prison 471, Valparaiso.
  
• Friday 26th and Saturday 27th July – 7:00 p.m.
• Register HERE.

On Friday 26th and Saturday 27th July at 7:00 pm the play HAMMAM will be presented at the Valparaíso Cultural Park Theater – Former Prison, with a discussion after the first performance. On Saturday 27th the LÖYLY open laboratory will be held, from 12:30 to 14:00 hours, and on Sunday 28th the PURGA LAVA TORIO laboratory, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. All activities are free for those over 14 years old. Places are limited, so registration must be done here.

This project is carried out within the framework of HAMMAM’s 2024 National Circulation, financed by the National Fund for the Promotion and Development of the Performing Arts, Call 2023. HAMMAM is a project co-produced by NAVE Creation and Residency Center, funded by the National Fund for Cultural Development and the Arts of Chile, Call 2019 and made up of Javiera Peón-Veiga, Artistic Director; Claudio Muñoz, Performer; Antonia Peón-Veiga, Lighting Designer; Rodrigo Sobarzo, Sound Designer; and Natalia Ramírez Püschel, in charge of documentation.

The Arabic word “hammam” means “spreader of heat” and refers to hot water baths and social spaces that collectively invite people to cleanse their bodies and spirits through steam and water. In the HAMMAM project, humid environments are created and the “bath” is explored as a collective phenomenon of purgation, regeneration and social healing practice, where the intimate sphere and public space are rubbed together. This transdisciplinary project crosses dance as well as sound art, performance and writing, developing sound capsules, open practices, installations and a digital publication.

Javiera Peón-Veiga, project directorpoints out: “The dance we do questions the boundaries of the discipline and tries to stretch those boundaries. In this work, steam dances, light and sound do too. The interests persist and generate continuity from one project to another; a continuous investigation, over years, that takes different forms and accents. In HAMMAM there is an interest in getting out of oneself, understanding that the boundaries of the body are not in the skin, being crossed by invisible, imperceptible forces. The experience invites us to feel the touch through the steam and to get out of a first layer, perceiving the sound, a tactile medium that transforms us, the vibration, the molding of matter.”

Since her training, Javiera has been interested in various disciplines. She was born and raised in Rancagua, and went to study Psychology in Santiago, where she had access and decided to venture into dance. This prompted her to later train in London, England, and Angers, France, adding breadth and world views to her perspective as a creator. Regarding her training, she shares:

“At first I saw the world of psychology and dance as two dissociated areas. After years I realized that the work in dance, from the body, is related to self-knowledge and healing. I am very interested in the field of psychology from that other place, exploring ourselves as beings in relationship, from the somatic, that we constitute ourselves in the in betweenin the processes of relationship and affection with, and that the corporal dimension encompasses various intertwined dimensions, the physical, psychic, subtle, energetic, electromagnetic, and many more. Art allows us to investigate other planes of existence, tracing paths towards transformation based on what can be widely experienced in dance.”

Javiera points out that HAMMAM honors steam as a state: a state of water, a blurred state, a low-definition state, with medicinal powers, liminal, in-between, tactile, pulverized, a state in transition. Regarding her interest in research, she explains that “this project is a co-creation. I direct, I play a role in the work carried out as a team since 2019, when we started the project and then the pandemic arrived. We write a lot collectively, making co-creation a space of intersection where diverse knowledge is mixed. Steam blurs the boundaries, we invite you to enter a space where we will find ourselves blurred by the experience.”

For more information about the aspects of this project, visit the website and follow the Instagram account @estoesunhammam.