“I lose days, life, sleep. But it’s not my fault if I desire death and life at once, at the same time, at the same hour. And I want everything at the same time.” Alejandra Pizarnik
Girls (whispering): Hey, sweeties, are you awake?
Sadness: Yes, fully awake... It’s impossible to sleep in this heat.
Girls: Yeah, we're all wide awake as well...
Sadness: What’s up? What’s on your mind?
Girls: Nothing special... It’s just that feeling that we could maybe be somewhere else right now, you know?
Sadness: Yeah, that happens sometimes... Do you want to come over to my place? We can do something, anything.
Girls: We were thinking that it’s ages since we went to a party. A really great, fantastic party, surprisingly tender, dramatic and luminous... A party that represents us!
Sadness: Well, of course, when you put it like that! These are strange times for parties... But anyway, come over, we’ll think of something. Come now. You can even come in your pjs!
Girls: Ok, we're on our way. In any case... it shouldn’t be too hard to have party in these times, should it? In these times, a party can simply be about pausing and being together. In these times, a party can be about loving and remembering we're lovable.
Sadness: Totally. In these times, a party can be about spending a great hour dancing. A great hour singing. A great hour told well.
Girls: Invoking the night so we can see the stars, if only for a moment. Invoking the night and making it last until we drop. Tired, sweaty, listening to a story, an idea, a song.
Sadness: As Juan de Mairena said, an hour well told would never finish being told. A party can also be about celebrating time and celebrating the night.
Girls: Girls getting together for a twilight picnic. That could be nice.
Sadness: Great, so that’s what we’ll do, ok? All we need is a nice place in the open air, some music and a hundred or maybe two hundred friendly people. That will change the night completely, take it to places we can’t imagine...open it up, right?
Girls: Yes, that’s it. Let the night open up.
Open up the night.
La tristura and Mucha Muchacha arrive at the Museo CA2M this year with a joint proposal for the 2026 Picnic Sessions. What they propose is a time of listening, dancing, watching. According to anthropologists, before we shared a language we shared rituals, which is essentially what makes us human. We want to share this ancient ritual with the people of the city, share the feeling of being hospitable in this century. We’ve sought out different artists to spend a few hours with at twilight, artists who strive to establish a unique relationship with our times, who can hold their gaze in these dark times we are living through, and who can also perceive a light in that darkness. Who can see the crack. So between 28 May and 2 July we’ll meet on the museum terrace and open up the night together.
“When the light leaves
and the sky’s black,
no nothing
to look at,
day’s done.
That’s it.” Robert Creeley
PROGRAMME
- Thursday 28 May. Guillem Jiménez | Okkre
- Thursday 4 June. Los Voluble
- Thursday 11 June. Laura Morales | Fantasma Sur
- Thursday 18 June. TEMPO DE FURIA (Egozkue and Paz) | Eddi Circa
- Thursday 25 June. Carmen Muñoz | Derek van den Bulcke
- Thursday 2 July. Natalia Fernandes | Las Víctimas Civiles
Time: 9 pm to 11 pm
CURATED BY:
Celso Giménez and Violeta Gil, members of La tristura, have been working in the performing arts field since they were twenty years old. Trying to generate “human situations” on and off the stage. Investigating the limits between presentation and representation, with a special focus on contemporary theatre, and committed to the intuition that intimacy and poetry are essentially political concepts. During this time, La tristura has collaborated with venues like the Teatros del Canal in Madrid, the Grec Festival in Barcelona, Cena Contemporânea in Brasilia, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Noorderzon in Groningen, and the AUA Festival in Bern, among others. Over the years they have also generated contexts like the Escuela de Invierno, Festival Salvaje and the Gran Convocatoria Mundial, all with the desire to keep connecting different agents and artists, trusting that these connections will give rise to unexpecting and inspiring movements. In recent years they have started solo projects and new collaborations in the fields of cinema, the stage and literature. Their work is still tied to Madrid, the city where they live and develop their projects.
Ana Botía and Belén Martí have been directing the dance company Mucha Muchacha since 2016, together with Marina de Remedios and Marta Mármol. Since the outset, their work has been focused on researching the body as a space of memory, identity and transformation, creating proposals that combine tradition and contemporaneity. Their performance language incorporates elements of folklore, pop music and Spanish dance codes, reconfigured through a critical gaze rooted in the present. Since its birth the company has created Volumen 1 (2019), Mucha Muchacha (2021), Para cuatro jinetes (2023) and more recent projects like Cantar de gesta (2026) in which they continue to explore the relationship between body, narrative and collectivity. Mucha Muchacha has developed a collaborative practice with artists from different disciplines, generating research and mediation projects like SERÉ FOLCLORE and the TALLER-FIESTA project.
