ALGO SE CRUZA EN LAS PALABRAS AL ESCAVAR BAJO LOS PIES* (creation 2027-2028)

A research and creation project by Olga de Soto

The project Algo se cruza en las palabras al escavar bajo los pies finds its initial momentum in the Maternity of Elne, founded in 1939 by Elisabeth Eidenbenz, a young Swiss teacher and nurse, and housed in the Château d’En Bardou until 1944. This maternity was created to shelter Spanish refugee women who had fled during the Retirada and had been interned, along with hundreds of thousands of Republicans exiles, in the concentration camps set up by the French government in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Its aim was to protect pregnant women imprisoned in these camps, in order to prevent the deaths of both mothers and their newborns.

Following in the wake of the forced migration caused by Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship, the project reflects on the impact that the actions of a single individual can have on society. It also explores the oral transmission of family history across generations within contexts of displacement, while observing how the mother tongue is passed down and acquired.

In parallel, the project traces a dance for a dead child, originating in the Valencian Community, which was banned in 1765 by the Bishop of Orihuela and practiced clandestinely until the early 20th century.

Building on the conceptual and dramaturgical threads of the documentary performance An Introduction, which sought to “make a work of the process“, this polymorphic project, envisioned to take several forms, will begin with a first form that does not reside in a fixed work, but in the movement the project initiates, the narratives it gathers, and the spaces of thought, imagination, and memory it opens — thus striving to “make a work of a projection“.

This project echoes the Spanish laws of Historical Memory (2007) and Democratic Memory (2022), which aim to honour the memory of victims and ensure the transmission of democratic memory.

Olga de Soto, 2025

* The title, Algo se cruza en las palabras al escavar bajo los pies, could be translated from Spanish as: something crosses through the words (or intersects with, or mingles among the words) when one digs lightly (or just beneath the surface) under our feet. The uncommon verb “escavar”, which means “to dig lightly into the earth to loosen it or remove weeds”, contrasts with the more common “excavar”, which means “to excavate by removing material to create a cavity”.

We are currently looking for support and production partners.
Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Contact Production
Niels Production
nielsasbl@skynet.be
+32 486 51 24 08

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