Performance

as Living Architecture

A One-Month Laboratory in MaskPoetica & Spatial Dramaturgy

Directed by Carlos García Estévez
Founder & Artistic Director of Manifesto Poetico

Overview

This laboratory investigates performance as a living architectural system, where bodies, masks, and spatial relationships interact to shape rhythm, gesture, and audience perception. Participants explore how these elements function together as compositional forces, rather than following a fixed aesthetic or style.

The work integrates mask practice, physical improvisation, and spatial experimentation, allowing performers to investigate performance as both a material and structural system. By the end of the program, participants will have developed tools to compose performances that engage perception, space, and collective dynamics.

The program unfolds through two interconnected research movements: MaskPoetica: Contemporary Commedia dell’Arte and Spatial Dramaturgy, supported by a flexible research hands-on construction environment called Atelier Inside the Form.