On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Alicante-born artist Juana Francés, the Palabras Mayores group presents the performance Juana and the Observant Beings, a collective creation conceived, produced and realized by the participants in this intergenerational museum project.
Palabras Mayores is a meeting space for people over 60 years old who, every Wednesday, come to the museum to learn, dialogue, display and experiment with contemporary art and culture. A place of creative freedom where vital experience becomes artistic material.
This performance proposes a scenic reinterpretation of Juana Francés' creative process, placing the audience within a mind in constant ferment. As if we were traversing her thoughts, obsessions and questions, the action is articulated in dialogue with the series The Man and the City, one of the artist's most emblematic works, in which she addresses society from dystopia, dehumanization, the alienation of the individual and the tension between matter, body and urban environment.
The so-called Observant Beings—hybrid figures, almost homunculi—inhabit the space as silent, critical and vulnerable witnesses. They observe, surround and question both the action and the audience, inviting shared reflection on the human condition, the city, the passage of time and the contemporary gaze.
The performance is participatory, open to the direct experience of the audience, who cease to be mere spectators to become part of the mental and symbolic atmosphere that runs through the piece.
