Lilián Pallares and Charles Olsen

The project that Lilián Pallares and Charles Olsen will carry out during their residency in the C.A.R. Is entitled Games in the Sun (Juegos al Sol). It has to do with Childhood, Play and the Public Space.

Its primary motivation is to investigate more deeply and in a critical, artistic and creative manner, the childhood-related issues that they have been developing in recent years. Juegos al Sol seeks to bring to light childhood and its games as a vital part of existence; that is why they believe it is fundamental to explore the link with the city and its public and cultural spaces, as a great deal of the memories that make up this stage of life are interwoven therein.

Through photography, video, painting, poetry, oral narration and writing, they will reflect on and investigate the role of children in the city. To this end, they will create audiovisual and photographic works as a chronicle of various squares and parks in Madrid, artistic offerings created in their recreational laboratory, and seminars in which to address and answer questions that may arise during the process: Is the city a place for children? What places in the city lead us back to our own childhood? What childhood memories does it awaken? Does childhood connect us to the city or is it vice versa? Where do they meet? Where do they play?

Lilián Pallares

(Colombia, 1976) Graduated in Journalism and Audiovisual Production with a specialty in screenplays from North University, Barranquilla, Colombia. She writes poetry, screenplays and stories. In 2017, she received the 14th Poets from Other Worlds (Poetas de Otros Mundos) Award from the International Poetic Fund in recognition of the high quality of her poetic work. She was selected among the ten best young writers in Latin America by About.com, New York, 2011.

She has published the books Sleepwalking City (Ciudad Sonámbula) (2010), Mute Voices (Voces Mudas) (2011), Bird, Vertigo (Pájaro, Vértigo) (2014) and Bestial (2019).

Her passion for folklore, her Afro roots and her love of words have led her to create the show Afrolyrics, in which she fuses her poetry with Caribbean-Afro-Colombian percussion. She has put this show on in Rencontre Abbaye Centro Cultural de Neumünster (Luxembourg), the Teatro Adolf Mejía (Cartagena de Indias), Biblioteca Piloto del Caribe (Barranquilla), the National Museum of Anthropology (Madrid) and Casa América (Madrid) among others. In 2019, she took part in the festivals Expoesía 12 (the Palacio de la Audiencia Theatre, Soria), Black Barcelona (Barcelona), PoeMad (Conde Duque Cultural Centre, Madrid), Griots es Poetas (Casa Encendida, Madrid), and Festival Eñe (Casa del Lector, Matadero Madrid). In 2020, she joined the cast of actors in the Cuban zarzuela Cecilia Valdés in the Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid).

Together with Charles Olsen, she runs the Antenablue, the Observed Word audiovisual production company, creating works related to the literary world and collaborations such as Things Always Come in Threes (No Hay Dos sin Tres), Barbara Fritsche Dance Project (Madrid), and Blinking (Parpadeos ), the Parpadeo Company (Flamenco Biennale, Netherlands).

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Charles Olsen

(New Zealand, 1969). He graduated with Honours in Fine Arts from theUniversity of Middlesex in London in 1994. In 2017, he received the 13th Poets from Other Worlds (Poetas de Otros Mundos) Award from the International Poetic Fund in recognition of the high quality of his poetic work and in 2018, he received the Antonio Machado SxS Poetry Scholarship.

He directs the online poetry game Borrowed Words (Palabras Prestadas). He has published two books, Sr Citizen (2011) and Antipodes (Antípodas) (2016), and he has taken part in several festivals and poetry anthologies. He has presented Agita Flamenco, his poetry recital with flamenco dance and piano in the New Zealand pavilion at the  Venice Art Biennale  (Italy, 2011) and in the Sala Manuel de Falla (SGAE, Madrid, 2012).

Since 1993 he has exhibited in the Showdown Exhibition Saatchi Gallery (London), Other Realities (Otras Realidades) Arcilla Fundación (Madrid), Landscapes of Memory (Paisajes de la Memoria) CEART (Fuenlabrada), Emergent Art Sala Xaudaró (Monzón) and Sala AAP (Zaragoza), VI Continente Centre Civic Barceloneta (Barcelona), Emerging Situations (Situaciones Emergentes) Galería Geraldes da Silva (Porto), Rita Castellote Gallery (Madrid), New Zealand House (London), Plimmer Steps Gallery (Wellington), Contemporary British Watercolours Beatrice Royal Gallery (Eastleigh), Salon d'automne Le Moulin Fidel (Paris), among others.

His short film The Dance of the Brushes (La Danza de los Pinceles ) won 2nd prize at the 1st Flamenco Short Film Festival (Madrid), and his video-poems have been included in such festivals as ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival (Berlin), Liberated Words (Bristol), Filmpoem Festival (Antwerp), Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival (Massachusetts), Sinestësia (Barcelona, 2017), Festival Silêncio (Lisbon), Newlyn Film Festival (Penzance), Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition (Cork), Crosses and Convergences (Cruces y Convergencias) La Neomudéjar (Madrid), and VideoBardo (Argentina), and have featured prominently in such specialised magazines as Moving Poems, Poetry Film Live, Atticus Review and Blackmail Press.

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