The Stranger Gets a Gift

"The fact is that you are creating an entire piece together... the creator of the work, is paired with me as an individual... I think that she becomes a guide into her vision, she guides me into its periphery, into her world through experiencing it. That is what I find interesting."

In The Stranger Gets a Gift, Cristina Maldonado, through an uncanny use of media devices, explores the possibility of a space of communion emerging between two people unknown to each other. This performance for only one audience member, asks an invited stranger to share with the artist some type of information which establishes a point of trust that will develop into the exchange of the mysterious gift from the title.

The space created provides a rupture with not only the fast pace of our daily lives, but also with our common usage of everyday gadgetry, bestowing a kind of pious quality on them. This disruption immerses our perception into a free realm, in which meanings to actions are not set, and our contributions to the piece become as important as the other component parts. On a certain level the performance questions who the stranger of the title really is, because you give as you take.

Concept:

Cristina Maldonado

Created:

Cristina Maldonado, Bethany Lacktorin, Kateřina Fojtíková, Verónica Bujeiro

Thanks to:

Jessica Sedrán a Sodja Lotker

Production:

JEDEFRAU.ORG, Barbora Vahalová

Supported by:

The artwork of Cristina Maldonado is supported by Creadores Escénicos Con Trayectoria 2012-2014, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes de México (FONCA/CONACULTA). This production is part of the project DISPLAYCE - Danza en Expansión from the Budget for Expenditure of the Federation 2012, Mexico. This production is developed in Alfred ve dvoře within our residency program 2013.

Duration:

45 min. for one person-audience

Language:

in English and Czech

Cristina Maldonado* (Mex)

is an artist whose background in body movement lends a unique approach to her visual and conceptual experiments with video, sound, collage and performance, giving a palpable tactility that not only invokes the audience sensually, but also leads us to the realm of comfort and beyond.
Her work unifies experimental theater, dance, participatory art, new and old media, her topics are body, communication and intimacy. She creates experiential frames connecting installations, videos and live action. She works alone or in collaboration with artists from different disciplines and has performed in Mexico, Eastern Europe, New York and Montreal. Since 2003 she has been directing various art and theater projects in Czech Republic.

Bethany Lacktorin (USA)

Korean-American sound artist, engineer, multi-instrumentalist currently living and working in Prague. Performing as improvisational multi-instrumentalist,  she works with various electronic devices, violin, vocalisations, collaborative and interactive sound sources. A freelance audio engineer for TV and Film post production, Bethany has earned credit on several independent films and documentaries, recorded and released a handful of albums, and produced and performed in exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe.

The Stranger Gets a Gift from cristina maldonado on Vimeo.