- camera, lighting & edit: John Collingswood
- Garnet Rap: Tsuna Commander
- costume & makeup: Mario Batanero & María Sol Álvarez
CAI: Mario
LOLA: Mario, pues Mario… a ver, tú.
LUIS: empieza, comienza, start.
CAI: ok Mario. My first meeting of Mario and of being alongside him was I realized that everything within me became very quiet, and I almost didn’t move myself. My presence changed to become veeeeery soft, to be able to see if I could find a way of relating; because my feeling was that I’m too much for Mario.
LUIS: claro, claro.
CAI: so, I noticed this experience in my body of being alongside him to just be very slow, very careful. And he showed me his work of the gloves of Garnet, the head of Garnet, and I thought the head of Garnet was so, so beautiful incredible structure. And then I think the first session we started to work and I could see almost like the movement was coming in rather than coming out, no? All the movement was always coming back in to himself, like he was testing, no? Testing the expression small, step by step and gradually my experience of the months is that there’s been an enlargement, no? An enlargement. And a physical confidence. I don’t think I met eyes with Mario for the first time. I was conscious of not having to be in this relationship which I think in society that I have learnt about relating to people through the eyes. I think this is not important. So I find a way of being with him in my body which is not intrusive or impulsive and then when we started to work with his costume I saw some change in him physically and I saw it in the lips. So I saw his face and I saw… the lips come together, the eyes closed, just this much and I was like wow!
LOLA: es verdad, sí.
CAI: there’s something happening in his face and almost coming together, like of a line that draws to the centre. What is this?
LUIS: concentración.
CAI: some concentration but also it was somehow my… It felt more than concentration, it felt bigger, It felt like it was expanding and coming in. I could see him. He was appearing more. And then through the months then this walking in the character, trying to find the movements of the character. And I gradually realized that all the time in the studio, working one hour, he begins to… the transformation begins. A security comes. An empowerment. An enlargement. A desire for the space, to meet the space.
LUIS: Ah, qué bonito eso.
CAI: A desire to meet the space because when I first met him my feeling from his… he was shrinking from the space, withdrawing from the space which is also equally as important as being in the space. Now no one is right or wrong. But I have wondered about the possibility of what would it be like to meet the space differently.
LOLA: It’s like and astronaut, no?
CAI: yes, yes.
LOLA: in the moon. He moved the first time in the moon.
CAI: on the moon.
LUIS: claro, en un lugar desconocido, nuevo, ¿no? And no space, could it be, no?
CAI: yes, I think so. And yesterday I was very moved, super emotional, just by…
LOLA: and one moment is a … congelation (pause).
LUIS: stand still, like a …
CAI: stand still.
LOLA: this is a… ¿cómo se dice? Bueno como cuando haces una coreografía, hay una idea de coreografía ahí.
CAI: sí, exactly.
LOLA: la idea y la hace, que es más difícil, porque ideas puede tener muchas, pero la hace. Hace tac!, se atreve y lo hace y luego sigue.
LUIS: and everything is so quiet, in a slow level, but…
LOLA: pero eso es un atrevimiento. ¿Cómo se dice atrevimiento?
LUIS: sí, dare. He dares. Se atreve.
CAI: he dares, but also, you know, my experience he’s inviting being seen.
LOLA: ¿inviting qué es?
LUIS: está invitando a ser visto.
LOLA: ah, sí. Yes, yes.
CAI: which is when I first met him there wasn’t the invitation. Over time is like I invite you to see me through Garnet, through the… So I think with Mario there’s the idea of the physical security but also the expansion of the self through Garnet. The Garnet being the vehicle of all to become this. The idea of Garnet being a fusion of two female energies.
LUIS: so, here, there is also a question of the feminine but not in the sense of archetype.
CAI: no, no. Different.
LUIS: this is another point, because he enjoyed very much the moment we gave him boobs…
CAI: breasts.
LUIS: when he dresses.
CAI: yes, Mario puts the costume on.
LUIS: ¿te acuerdas? Le gustó mucho.
LOLA: and his movement, this movement Cai…
CAI: the face.
LOLA: this is very… It’s like the first movement in the life, when someone is born.
CAI: yes
LOLA: recién nacido. Todo es con esfuerzo … todos los gestos son pequeños, pero significativos… Como al comienzo del movimiento.
LUIS: yes, the moves of animals when … cuando son dados a luz. The animal when he’s born. The moves of the animal trying to be…
CAI: yes, trying to find itself.
LUIS: yes, trying to stand up, to… mantener la postura, no? To maintain your place in life.
CAI. yes and the Garnet’s character somehow brings us a power, a security. I find it interesting that this is a fusion of love.
LUIS: and curious, a feminine power, no? Not a macho power. Es curioso eso. Eso es muy curioso. Another sensibility also about power, no?
CAI: there’s a poem by Cummings: Love is a place and through this place of love, through this place of love move all places.
LUIS: y a través de este lugar del amor se mueven todos los demás lugares.
CAI: and the second part is: Yes is a world
LUIS: Sí es un mundo.
CAI: in this world of yes.
LUIS: en este mundo del sí.
CAI: live all worlds.
LUIS: viven todos los mundos.
CAI: and Mario is like, Itiziar also… it’s the yes, the yes, the yes, the yes.
LOLA: ah, el mundo del sí.
LUIS: well, en todas las cosmologías, in every cosmología (I don’t know how to say this)…
CAI: cosmology.
LUIS: …the beginning is love. El amor es el desencadenante, ¿no? Es el elemento inicial.
CAI: it’s love that is beyond what we recognize it in what society tells us, beyond this, but in the project these two words, LOVE/DIFFERENCE.
LUIS: claro, claro.
CAI: love and difference.
LUIS: sí, el amor y la diferencia.
CAI: together.
