November 14, 2012

Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca (ES)

Marcel.lí Antúnez was born in Moía (Barcelona) in 1959. He began his artistic career as a founding member of the group La Fura dels Baus (1979) whilst studying Fine Art at the University of Barcelona. With this performance art company he has performed on every continent and has won a multitude of national and international prizes. He has also been co-founder of a variety of contemporary theater companies, musical and performance art such as Los Rinos Art Total Group (from 1985) or El Artificio (1991-92) as well as exploring many other creative environments (editing, music, cinema and video). He has exhibited in a number of countries, the most prominent exhibition being La vida sin amor no tiene sentido (Live without love makes no sense, 1983) consisting of sculptures and machines made from pork. In his robot Joan L´home de carn (1992), created together with Sergi Jorda, he incorporated interactive elements into his works for the first time, a detail that he would later intensify in the performanceEpizoo (1994), performed in over fifty five cities around the world. His latest work, Afasia, an interactive multimedia performance first shown in 1998 at the National Theater of Catalunya of Barcelona combines elements of music, robots and electronics. Building a narrative hypertext around the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, Antúnez develops in this work an audiovisual and scenic rite whose central axis is the concept of travel, ranging from the mythic journey to the virtual topographies of the current digital era.