SIMULACRO
Simulacro could begin anywhere, but it chooses a roundabout. A circular space where everything spins without moving forward, without a starting point or fixed direction. A crossing where paths blur and time repeats itself. A suspended place.
In this space where linearity has dissolved, there is no single narrative to organize the chaos: only fragments, cuts, voids, superimpositions, disjointed images, and signs without cause or consequence. Even the body does not remain. It doesn’t act, it reacts. It doesn’t speak on behalf of anyone. Trace, echo, interference.
Inspired by the theory of Jean Baudrillard, Simulacro dives into a present saturated with signs and screens, where simulation not only replaces truth but erases any trace of an authentic referent—creating a meaning that is lost, fragile, and artificial.
In this fractured landscape, the piece abandons narrative structure and conventional representation to unfold a dance that is fragmented, dislocated, without beginning or end. Each gesture is a reaction; each image, a door to another interface.
In this way, the piece becomes a metaphor for a broader rupture: the fracture of the subject, of time, of the world. In a universe governed by invisible algorithms, where perception is filtered and real experience fades into an endless loop of echoes without origin or destination, the sensible becomes code and the visible, a bottomless illusion.
Simulacro embodies this infinite repetition, revealing the crisis of meaning and the disappearance of the real in the digital age. Where the only possibility of progress seems to be a return. A new beginning that appears as liberation, but is, once again, just another visual trick—another trompe-l'œil. A loop that sustains the illusion that something is changing, when in fact, everything is repeating.
Text: Agnès López-Río
ARTISTIC TEAM:
Creation date: 20/04/2025 / Currently active
Country: Spain
Genre: Contemporary Dance
Duration: 60 min
Recommended age: General audience
Venue: Theatre
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
Mattia Russo & Antonio de Rosa
CHOREOGRAPHY
Mattia Russo & Antonio de Rosa, in collaboration with the performers
PERFORMERS
Martina Anniciello, Nagga Baldina, Edoardo Brovardi, Benoît Couchot, Samuel Dilkes, Ange Hiroki, and Samuel Van der Veer
DRAMATURGY
Agnès López-Río
MUSIC
Original composition: Alejandro da Rocha
Sound design: Nouseskou
And various artists
SET DESIGN
Amber Vandenhoeck
LIGHTING DESIGN
Oscila
COSTUME DESIGN
Design & creative direction: Luca Guarini
Production: Iñaki Cobos
VIDEO DESIGN
Nouseskou
TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Meritxell Cabanas
STAGE MACHINERY
Cristian Malo
PRODUCTION
Gabriel Blanco, Paola Villegas & Andrea Méndez (Spectare)
SIMULACRO is a co-production by:
Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque, Madrid;
Centro di Produzione Porta D’Oriente, Bari (Italy);
Biennale di Venezia – Danza, Venice (Italy);
Montpellier Danse – Agora Montpellier (France);
Theater Freiburg (Germany).
With the support of:
Ministry of Culture – Government of Spain;
Community of Madrid;
City Council of Madrid.
Fedora Van Cleef & Arpels and Opera Europa
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El País
“Simulacro is intensely conceptual and aesthetically imposing,” with choreography that “breaks with traditional narrative,” offering “sensory enjoyment and critical thought.”
“It is always good when choreography makes us enjoy and think! … We must stand for pure quality.”
🔗 El País
La Cerca / Masescena
“Simulacro is set in a present saturated with signs and screens, where simulation replaces truth.”
“Following the success of their previous work, Mont Ventoux, the company returns with this new piece that explores the boundaries between reality and fiction.”
🔗 Masescena
Vivir Ediciones
“The piece unfolds in a present where signs, screens, and algorithms dissolve authentic experience.”
“In its place, it offers a choreography that is fragmented, dislocated, and without beginning or end. The piece becomes a metaphor for a broader crisis…”
🔗 Vivir Ediciones – Review
Neo2
“Bodies that no longer represent: they react, fragment, and question our reality.”
“It invites the viewer to get lost in a flow of images and gestures that disorients as much as it fascinates.”
🔗 Neo2
Guía del Ocio
“Simulacro becomes a metaphor for deeper fractures: those of the subject, time, and the world.”
“The piece abandons narrative structure and conventional representation to unfold a fragmented, dislocated dance without beginning or end.”
🔗 Diario Crítico – Guía del Ocio
