Nieves Correa and Abel Loureda

Work for Live Art Danmark
Nieves Correa and Abel Loureda performed “Babia” at Hitparaden 2

Babia
In Spanish, the phrase “to be in Babia” expresses to be absent minded, a dreamer.  It refers to the Babia Valley, where centuries ago the kings of León went to escape their monarchical tasks. The title is a well chosen, the performance indeed has a somnambulistic quality.

In a darkened space, the audience sit in a circle around a small, brightly lit area, a red suitcase in the middle of it. Nieves and Abel, both naked, move around somewhere on the fringes of the circle, interacting with the audience. Muffled laughter, scraping of chair legs on concrete is all we hear for the first minutes. Then Nieves steps into the light carrying a chair. She opens the suitcase, removes a purse and throws handfulls of coins into the darkened space. We hear them jingling and rolling away. Then she takes a pink plastic bowl filled with water and a large wooden dildo from the suitcase. She positions herself with her back to the camera, refusing it to record how she carefully polishes the dildo with a rag while taking a footbath. Much later, Abel enters the circle. He sits on the floor and drinks the water from the bowl. Later, Nieves sticks pins into her naked arms and shoulder while Abel squats behind her, drawing heavy black lines on her back. He moves to face her, joins her, sticking pins into his own shoulder, until none are left. Slowly, they remove all pins from both their bodies. This moment in particular, like the performance as a whole, quietly says much about the pain and cohesion of being a couple.

About the Artists
After long careers, working separately in the fields of creation and organization since the early nineties, in 2012 Nieves and Abel decided to start a new phase of their live by working together. They were sure that the adventure of sharing the process of creation will be always interesting, plentyful and fun.

“We share the same concept of performance: simplicity, no technology, every day objects and ideas … our process of creation always involves our live, our hopes and our love as an unconscious reflection on our personal process of knowledge between us and yourselves.”

There is a section on Nieves’ website, dedicated to their collaboration.

Photo: Peter Lind