Creative team
TRACY EVANS |
Tracy is an Irish performance artist, researcher and arts manager based in Wales. Since 2012, she has made 4 autobiographical performances that explore different aspects of the way that women tell/perform their birthstories : twenty minutes (2012); caesura (2013); Rehearsals for a Birth Story (2014); AfterBirth (2015). CORD (2016) is the final performance in this series. Using a range of body-based practices including slow movement, stillness and gesture, her performance work attempts to create spaces for reflection, contemplation and experiencing. She is interested in promoting deep listening in performance: listening- not to make sense of something but, in order to be present to something; listening as witnessing. This type of performance invites a mature and reciprocal relationship between the performer and the audience.
Her vision at the heart of this project, and all of her solo work since 2012, is that if women can find new ways of telling their birth stories, that are unique to them and that allow their own experience, both inner and outer, to be central to the narrative, then the act of telling one’s birth story can be utterly transformative. In cases where women have experienced difficult or traumatic childbirths, which is very common nowadays, it becomes possible to find healing and understanding through sharing your birth story. She has just completed a practice-based PhD in this subject area at Aberystwyth University, under the supervision of Jill Greenhalgh and Dr Karoline Gritzner, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. www.traceofthesea.com |
FRANCESC SERRA VILA |
"How I see the world is greatly influenced by my passion for performing arts and my background in architecture".
London based architect, Francesc mainly works on installations, design for performances and interactive sculptures; a body of work driven by his interest in physics, materials, structures, movement, temporariness, embodied experience and feelings of self. Three elements are at the core of any of his projects: site specific, with an outcome that seeks to be alert and responsive to the context and site; immersive, with visitors invited to have an active role. He wishes to pick their curiosity and encourage them to see things from another perspective; and evolving. His construction will be altered by performers, visitors, the surrounding or the structure itself, to raise awareness of the present, of who we are and where we are. Since 2013, his work has been showcased in places such as Cardiff (DAWN/S, a site-specific performance at the World Stage Design), Brussels (RAINBOW immersive installation) or London (HOME, for Performing Architectures). Member of Society of British Theatre Designers, Francesc is currently studying an MFA in Scenogrophy at CSSD. In the past, he has worked as project draughtsman at La Monnaie, ENO, WNO and the Royal Swedish Opera. www.fserravila.com |