La gran mentira de la muerte
20 december – 12 januari 2025
Part of Carmen and Carmen
La gran mentira de la muerte (The big lie of death) is a multichannel sound and film installation that explores poetic themes of the famous opera Carmen through the performative fields of flamenco and bullfighting.
The film explores how these forms – like the opera itself – evoke the spectacle of death, and implicate the spectator as a part of it. This work brings the ritual performance of death (real and imagined) into a conversation with cinema, which bears its own murderous traditions. The film features collaborations with performers Rocío Molina with José “El Oruco”, Yinka Esi Graves, Tosh Basco and the bullfighter Vanessa Montoya.
La gran mentira de la muerte is co-produced by TBA21, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Hartwig Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Victoria, with the collaboration with MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona). Research and development commissioned by TBA21, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Generously supported by CAAC, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo and Excelentísimo Ayuntamiento de Guillena (Sevilla).
Carmen and Carmen
From 20 December to 12 January, award-winning filmmaker and multimedia artist Wu Tsang presents Carmen and Carmen: a film installation, along with a program of films, talks and performances, that together explore the myth of Carmen in conversation with her collaborators.
Opening hours
Mon – Sun / 11:00 – 20:00*
Free entrance
Grote Zaal, De Balie
*There are different opening hours during the holidays.
24 December / 11:00 – 17:00
25 + 26 December / Closed
31 December / 11:00 – 17:00
01 January / Closed
12 January / 11:00 – 17:00
In Cooperation with
In converation with Wu Tsang and artist and writer Sophie Al-Maria who together worked on the innovative Carmen opera that was presented by the Holland Festival last year. For her opera version of Carmen Wu Tsang cooperated with writer and artist Sophia Al-Maria. Together they worked on a hybrid opera-theatre piece that digs through the
Lawyer and feminist Pastora Filigrana will focus on the image of the gypsy women in the Carmen story and speak about Romani feminism. Throughout history gypsy women have been faced with dominant stereotypical cultural expressions of themselves and anti-gypsy laws. The story of Carmen is a famous example of that discourse. Lawyer Pastora Filigrana will
