Free entry

The performance is divided into two acts. The first act presents a recital and embodiment of a trilogy of poems: Truth, Waves, and Fever, exploring the layered experiences of heritage, identity, and resilience. The second act centers on the performance of the poem The First Time I Died, a meditation on self-loss, transformation, and rebirth.

Structured in acts that mirror the stages of grief, the performance moves through emotional landscapes: denial’s silence, raw rage, bargaining through ancestral rituals, and the stillness of self-erasure. It ends in a fragile acceptance—not as resolution, but as an opening. The body becomes archive and altar, carrying stories carved by generations, bearing witness to the wounds that refuse to close.

Alongside movement, the piece unfolds within a sonic landscape of intimate recordings: family members sharing stories, ancestral tales, and the everyday rhythms of Black Ecuadorian life. The voice of Valencia’s birthmother closes the performance singing an arrullo—a traditional Afro- Ecuadorian lullaby offered to a deceased child. This and other moments in the piece draw from the folkloric traditions of Esmeraldas, the region where Valencia’s mother was born. The communities of Colón Eloy, Timbiré, and San Lorenzo, among others, are vital to Ecuador’s cultural heritage and rich in their own traditions, yet often remain absent from official maps. Honoring them is central to the work—a humble offering of gratitude for all they have given him.

Carlos Valencia (b. 1995, Guayaquil, Ecuador) grew up in the Romandie, after spending his early childhood in Ecuador.

Trained in contemporary dance and theatre, and later working as a model across Europe, he developed a practice rooted in the body as a medium of expression. Alongside movement, he writes prose and poetry, seeking to bridge the languages of text and the body. His practice investigates the theory and language of bodily movement, exploring the body as both a means and a symbol of resistance and resilience; resistance as an act of defiance, resilience as a testament to endurance and transformation.

His work often grapples with feelings of displacement and the struggle to belong, an experience encapsulated in the short film As I Am, which premiered at the Swiss Youth Film Festival in 2023. In it, he reflects on the challenges of fitting in, the pressures of assimilation, and the tension between self-expression and societal expectations.

Curated by Pietro Vitali
Sound by Luca Grella
Graphics by Emmanuel Yoro
Generously supported by GGG Kulturkick and KASKO