Look of Elena Prous. Reserved space for wheelchair, buy your entry by calling the…

What if the terms “stage creation” and “disability” join? This exhibition is a brief reflection on how to incorporate disabled people into the world of creation. If the European white man no longer represents us as a creator, why not expand this critical look at the audience that is expected or wishes? Where are the disabled creators? In this last article in the residence dossier, we wanted Elena Prous to tell us about her vision and experience in the “system” of residences.

Elena Prous look
Reserved space for wheelchair, buy your entry by calling the…

(A stage, a micro. Go up the ramp and the speech begins)

What if the terms “stage creation” and “disability” join? If you are disabled and you are trying to carry out an artistic process; First, you have to solve the discrimination that come with the disabled and, if there is time and energy, there may be room for creation.

Discrimination has these things. It is not a wet umbrella that you leave in a corner until the next show, it is a threat of constant flood that only leaves time to build dikes on the march.

This exhibition is a brief reflection on how to incorporate the disabled into the world of creation. It is an attempt to attract attention to the spaces of artistic and cultural creation so that they have the dikes built or, at least, prepared and we can dedicate ourselves to joining them, to explain our realities or concerns through art to contribute to a more diverse culture.

It is also a reflection and an attempt to let the cool window pass through the collective. What happens to us when we decide, not only to participate, but also to be part of it?

I will start with a story, as an immersive experience, about how the guilt or fame of life is generated with life, as the imposter’s syndrome, which prevents us even more perverse in our case.

The disabled tend to charge the difficulties involved in participating in society and cultural creation. We are afraid of asking for accessibility and adaptations that are essential in a continuous outbreak not to be disturbed that we do not write, but it came to us with the disability certificate.

That is why, especially if you have obtained a project through a residence or call of a space, if you have not heard from afar, like a whisper, a look for lifeat best, a possible conflict will appear: we cost extra.

For your participation, you will need to invest in accessing spaces that were probably not aware that they were not until they saw you enter through the door, and adjust budgets for technical and human supports that did not know or handled, such as assistance Personal, performers or support people.

In this scenario, it is understandable that the blame will be fired. It makes you feel less sexy reach a place you want to get you and be part of your artistic process asking and asking for resources that require added funding and management. Who does not want to impress the first appointment?

When it seems that you have tied the guilt strong and you have learned to express the anger elegantly, the plot makes a new turn and the overcoming appears. You think you have to make up for this effort and take advantage of the opportunity, and do something really good. Which also contains all the emotions and realities that you are experiencing, precisely because of these added difficulties. And let’s not forget that we are in the age of political identities, as we will not talk about us if no one knows almost anything about the disabled, beyond a lot of prejudices and empty interpretations.

At this point, you know that budgetary costs more than others, and that you have to explain something revealing. And that, in addition, it is necessary to do well, that is not the case that they do not take a group of disabled again with everything you have mounted. You remember that it is an artistic process, that you have to connect with creativity and you are there to learn, but you can no longer dissipate this pressure you feel in the neck.

The blockade or an excess of concern is already a fact, and it is accompanied by the question, should they have been worth it? You probably have been worthwhile, in spite of everything, because you bring all your disabled life in this battle and what you want is to gain allies and learn what you have come to learn with the cold sweat that costs you. The key is not to forget that the fact of conforming does not make it fairer. It’s time to take your finger to point out of you.

(Pause to drink. Ask for a glass of water from a personal assistant and continues with the argument).

Thank you, I continue. How do we solve this excess of tension that has taken writing? Can we generate another experience? What do we need?

The first, with believing from the outside that it is now a reef to include disabled in projects as the last hit In minorities. And be careful that the road is ready for friendly traffic because, in the field of accessibility, everything is needed. The commitment of inclusion will not seek who is missing, but to understand the value we bring with what we carry and the right we have to be part of it with a minimum resolved.

We need to introduce a story where we can be temperate, inexperienced, learners or ni Chicha or Limonáif I am normal, and then you will see. If not; There is no way to enjoy the process or learn. It is key to break with the idea of ​​compensating for our overhead, and to assume that inclusion and accessibility are a social responsibility and, in this case, cultural towards us.

Society marks what you can do and from what paradigms, and getting out of it is a distortion for the other people’s gaze, which is none other than the mirror that builds us. If the social story is that you either succeed and overcome, or you do not exist, how will you think you can simply be an artist with rights?

We need to convince yourself and convince you that we do not cost anymore, we are not an extra cost. The problem is that our needs are not resolved and those of the other bodies, yes. Bodies that have dominated the scene for many reasons that have to do with power not with chance, so there are economic investments that are counted and others that do not. No one thinks that spending on illuminating a theater is an overhead, everyone hopes focus on stage. The same thing should happen if you budgeted: public waiting, and the deaf people are a part.

Apart from reflecting on shaking us as a disabled, I would like this argument to help who wants to bet on disability, to generate spaces for the most kind and less exhausting creation for us. Thus, I will share the solutions that the experience has been generating to oxygenate this text and also inspire those who can implement solutions to unleash the difficulties we encounter.

(Call your assistant that the sheet passes and relocates the micro. They talk to whisper in the ear)

I find it extremely repetitive and almost violent to start by saying that creation spaces must be accessible. There are laws, accessibility experts, techniques and I do not know how many figures to consult a minimum that allow access to facilities, stages and bathrooms. Creation spaces must reserve an annual budget to invest in what is needed if a person appears with needs that were not covered.

They also have the opportunity to make a key political decision. Instead of tightening the disabled to fit, you need to look up, the following body with power, and demand that you comply with accessibility. Addressing to the above requires value and is the first political action that shows that you want to stop pointing to the subject you want to include.

The intentions are often good, but the policies change slowly. That is why it is essential to contemplate budgetary games to the calls and residences in order to meet needs that we do not know, but they exist. Both possible technical supports and human supports need a budget, there is no more romanticism in this matter. From this coverage they can start asking: What do you need to participate?

To close, I encourage our preconceived mental structures, move all the mechanisms of what is creative to inclusion. If you can dream of the stage, you can dream of the whole room. We create pieces where we are central and do not reproduce stereotypes. It seems obvious, but it continues to happen. We create. We create thinking that the disabled is also a desire for experiences, who want to consume culture and be part of it. Who do you think of the breakthrough, feminist and subversive shows? Why, in this setting of rooms and stage time, is there only this person capable? If the European white man no longer represents us as a creator, why not expand this critical look at the audience that is expected or wishes? Where are the disabled creators? Something is not just moving.

It is essential to learn to ask and assume that they do not know much about us to give us the word and allow us to experiment. We may come from inaccessible training routes, which did not count on planning. We may devote a lot of time from daily life to meeting basic needs and that the space for creativity is small. As I said at the beginning, discrimination is not only the theory of a book, we have brought to us, we embody it. And it is from this starting point, from where we come to stage creation with all the power and shortcomings that it entails. It is a extremely powerful place for which we need resources, space and confidence, only that, that is not a small thing.

(Applause. He leaves the stage. The personal assistant collects the papers and offers him again. She denies with her head)

In Caravan de Centàurides, thanks therefore love and shared suffering.

It works on functional diversity from different methodologies. Putting the body with performance with pieces like Hold you that you can which was part of the Biennial ONCE 2022 and also from writing to magazines such as La Madeja and Pikaramagazine, El Diario.es and El Salto.

Resident at CRA Matadero Madrid by 2023/24 with the project Sintomatologists: Learning SPÁSTIC; A research project on disease, diagnosis and functional diversity/disability. He was part of Caravan de Centàurides, a collective of artistic residence with Moving Identities and Nau Ivanow, a program that revolves around the performing arts and diversity in 2024. He is currently studying a training in creation and stage production in El Palomar de Jana Pacheco. Write on the block: Laincontenida.com

Article in collaboration with the Red Scénica Magazine