Without Unstitching the Lips

 "Without unpicking the lips..." (Sense descosir els llavis..., in Catalan) is a verse taken from Book 18 of the Iliad, where Homer describes Achilles' shield. The Santa Mònica Laboratori de cos i moviment proposes an action on this warlike and symbolic device of the Achaean hero in the Trojan War based on the work created for the exhibition by Antonio Gagliano and Verónica Lahitte. Six performers develop a corporal activation within the exhibition route of The Assault of Illusion, dialoguing with its conceptual axes through a practice based on presence, improvisation and listening.

The Pyrrhic dances – war dances in classical culture – have their mythical origin in the figure of Achilles, who, under the name of Pyrrha (the redhead), hid by pretending to be a woman before setting out for Troy. Sense descosir els llavis explores the shared genealogy of dance with the choreographies of military training and ritualisation in the struggle to evolve towards the deconstruction of power and the deactivation of the structural violence that sustains it.

Activity promoted by Body and Movement Laboratory
With the participation of Ivan Bercedo, Julieta Ferraro, Helena Minguet, Marika Nava, Guillem Rodri and Pamdenàs

The Body and Movement Laboratory is a research and exploration collective of body, dance, movement and performance residing at the Santa Mònica. It arose from a group work directed by Zoe Balasch as part of the Corpografies Inclassificables laboratory in 2023, and since 2024 it has functioned as an independent group, with six members of different profiles. With a horizontal, collaborative and experimental structure, it participates in the centre's programmes such as Sound and Body Wednesdays and in activations of exhibition projects.