A remarkable visual essay that takes us on a journey into parallel worlds and the multilayered nature of our consciousness.

Inspired by early video art, Stereopresence combines performance with an original video intervention. Using simple projection screens, compact video cameras, and data projectors, the piece explores the various layers of possible worlds: the indefinite boundaries between the physical and ethereal, the real and the imaginary, between what is and what isn’t. In so doing, Stereopresence tries to capture a present in which the real world blends with the virtual.

“Once at night, my grandmother woke me by walking up and down the hallway, talking to herself. She was pointing at the wall, describing pots and pans that were hanging there. But there weren’t any there. I decided not to pull her into my world, the real one, but to let her stay in hers, the world she had pulled out of her past. Somehow I felt so close to her, to what she had once been,” says Cristina Maldonado in describing her inspiration for the project. “Stereopresence is about existing between worlds: here, in this reality, and at the same time in another, private reality. It is life on the intersection of those realities,” she adds.

Media: live cinema / intermedia theatre / video-performance

Duration: 70 min. 
Year: 2016
Version: English, Czech, Spanish 
Premiered: Theatre Alfred ve Dvoře, Prague, 2016
Performed in: Theatre Alfred ve Dvoře, Prague
Divadlo 29, Pardubice, Czech Republic
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
Facultad de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Mexico
Conjunto de Artes Escénicas, Guadalajara, Mexico

Keywords: memory, Alzheimer, multiple realities, accompaniment

Concept / Direction / Video / Installation: Cristina Maldonado
Performers: Cristina Maldonado, Sodja Zupanc Lotker/Petra Hauerová/Ana María Errasti, Lamija Čehajić
Dramaturgy: Sodja Zupanc Lotker
Dramaturgy consultant: Petra Hauerová
Light design and media: Šimon Janíček a Vladimír Burian
Sound: Israel López a Tomáš Procházka
Objects: Isabela Juchniewicz a Dragan Stojčevski
Translation: Ana María Errasti
Production: JEDEFRAU.ORG, Stereopresence z. s.
Production assistant: Isabela Juchniewicz
Volunteers: Isabel Vizcaíno, Selma Lindren, Bria de la Mare, Sara Milner, Jenni Kokkomäki, Ioana Mona Popovici
Support: The city of Prague, MKČR, Motus, theatre Alfred ve dvoře

Press:

Investigación Teatral: Stereopresence, de Cristina Maldonado [ES]

"Stereopresence is a piece characterized by the live interaction of the artist with the projected
images. The images are presented thanks to the use of technological devices that allow the projection
of digital video. The projections are of two types: the closed circuit, which corresponds to the
transmission of actions that are happening in the scene, thanks to cameras connected directly to 
projectors, and live video, which are projections of pre-recorded images that are reproduced from a 
computer and are projected during a public action."


divadlo.cz: Mexická umělkyně Cristina Maldonado nabízí v inscenaci Stereopresence
výpravu do paralelního vědomí [CZ]

"Experts say there is nothing outside our real world. But imagine dementia as an extremely
wonderful way to exist - as a natural strategy that allows us to live in multiple
worlds at the same time."