Yinka Esi Graves

A flamenco dancer with African roots places her talent in dialogue with a new interpretation of Carmen proposed by the artist Wu Tsang.

The bailaora, or flamenco dancer, Yinka Esi Graves, responds to Wu Tsang’s new film installation in the MACBA’s Chapel. Tsang’s multichannel video and sound installation is part of his exploration of the myth of Carmen, the young Roma/flamenco woman who inspired the celebrated —yet problematic— nineteenth-century opera by the French composer Georges Bizet. The story of Carmen is set in Seville, where Graves currently lives, and through her own work she explores the mythologies of flamenco and its “black sounds”. Graves and Tsang are engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the many sides of Carmen through live flamenco improvisation, accompanied on the drum by Remi Graves.

With the support of

participant

Yinka Esi Graves

Yinka Esi Graves is an artist from London, the daughter of a Jamaican father and a Ghanaian mother who came to Spain attracted by flamenco. She has now become a well-known bailaora… even though she has a Yoruba name. She explores the memory of flamenco, the spiritual nature of which she says is directly connected to African dances. Her dancing accompanied singer Buika’s concert at the Teatre Grec during the Barcelona Grec Festival 2021, and more recently she performed The Disappearing Act (now being presented at this year’s edition of the Festival d’Avignon) at the Grec 2023.

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exhibition
From July 20, to November 3, 2024

Wu Tsang. The big lie of death