Otro modo de hacer juegos con las manos

Thanks to his project “Obres els dipòsits”, Fede Montornès invited me to visit Museu d’Art de Girona‘s store room. There, Toni Monturiol and Carme Clusellas welcomed and guided me through the museum’s repository. Fede told me I could choose three artworks. I selected a Saint Lucy’s sculpture, the sculpture of an angel whose hands are separated from its body, and a collection of woodblock stamps that used to illustrate the book Engaños a ojos vistas y diversión de trabajos mundanos fundada en lícitos juegos de manos,  by Pau Minguet and Irol, published in Madrid in 1755. 

Based on these three artworks, Fede asked me to work on a new project which would be presented at Bòlit, Centre d’Art Contemporani de Girona. I noticed that one of the chapters of Minguet’s book was dedicated to hand games to be made with the help of a handkerchief that are “so easy to play, that even women can practice them to have fun when they meet”. I decided to work with them. Both the text and the illustrations that appear in the book explain the movements that have to be made in each game, as well as the sentences that have to be pronounced and, specially, how to prepare the handkerchiefs in order to play the tricks. With this at hands, I contacted with Alba Sanmartí, actress and dancing teacher, to work together with this material.

So this is how we ended up with the project “Otro modo de hacer juegos con las manos”, a performative work and an exhibition that come from six of the magic games proposed by Minguet. Fede says that the result is a performance and an exhibition of the used material in St. Nicolau’s chapel that draws a kind of choreography that leaves aside the handkerchiefs in order to focus on the movement of hands, to make the lie visible and show the trick. After all: it shows that which is usually hidden.