A RESEARCH PROJECT THAT GENERATES FORMS (2026-2029)
CHAPTER 1, LECTURE-PERFORMANCE
ALGO SE CRUZA EN LAS PALABRAS AL ESCAVAR BAJO LOS PIES* – CHAPTER 1
An empty space, a white screen showing no images. The voice, the words. A motionless body, traversed by a rhythmic narration that speaks of migration and exile, of history and memory, of care, gestures and a forgotten social and symbolic ritual.
This first chapter places the narrative and the spoken word at the heart of the work, revealing the interlacing of a long-term investigation: from the history of a place designed to save the lives of women and children imprisoned in camps in the south of France from 1939 onwards – the Swiss Maternity Hospital in Elne, founded by Elisabeth Eidenbenz – to the search for a funeral dance to accompany the death of a child, alongside the transmission of family history and the mother tongue in a context of forced migration. The story unfolds, words settle, questions about our history, our memory and our language arise, connections emerge, revealing an invisible architecture made up of multiple ties.
Olga de Soto, 2026
concept, documentation, text and presentation: Olga de Soto
text review: Andrea Rodrigoproduction: Niels Production (Brussels, BE)
coproduction: Europalia España, AECID / Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo, Comisionado para la celebración de “50 años de España en Libertad”, Charleroi danse
with the support of Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service Général de la Création Artistique — Service de la danse and accompanied by Grand Studio (Brussels).
This first chapter of the project *Algo se cruza en las palabras al escavar bajo los pies* is part of a long-term research project that does not seek to produce a single final work but unfolds as a series of autonomous chapters adopting various forms and formats.
* The title, Algo se cruza en las palabras al escavar bajo los pies, could be translated from Spanish as: something comes across the words when one tills lightly beneath the 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”.
CALENDAR
29.01.2026: Europalia España, Kaaitheater, in the frame of Figures of Fascism and Antifascist Solidarity, curated by Bojana Cvejić, Brussels (première)
22.04.2026 : Gallery Night of Art Brussels, LAB of Embassy of Spain in Belgium, Brussels
ASSOCIATED EVENTS