I was inspired by the idea of a dialogue between the worlds of Pina Bausch, Nan Goldin and Borges’ ideas about the milonga, the salon tango dance. Masters of their discipline, they helped me construct scenarios where body, dance, theater and visual fantasy are woven into a kind of continuous exchange. I wander through different episodes and radicalize the eroticism proposed by tango. For tango is an open invitation to develop a full-on, passionate relationship with another person, it tells stories of the human condition and plunges deep into sensuality and pain alike, no holds barred. The music and poetry lead me to visualize amorous yet violent intimacies trembling with tension on the brink, but also simultaneously, overflowing.
The words and their social relevance are a feverish portrait of our essence, the purest iconography possible of Buenos Aires: friends, enemies, the timba cardgames, the lunfardo rhyming slang, memory and cafés. The acuity of its poetry is the result of local familiar words that attain a universal resonance. “The week is too long when it is empty of passion”, says one line.
I have a strong sense of belonging to Buenos Aires, a profound connection with tango, and I feel at home moving draughts across the classical checkerboard tables in the cafés, sitting in the milongas where “those tiles that speak to us are symbols of past affections and memories which mark our skin, appearing as tattoos on our bodies.”
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