Social (contact) lift - "Do you come here often?"

An actress or actor is invited to inhabit for a few hours a day the exhibition spaces of Santa Mònica, La Rambla, the Drassanes metro lifts and the Santa Mònica lift, and the surrounding area, with the aim of establishing social contact conversations with the people who circulate.

Based on Bennaton's script, they have the function of Ombudsman, a word of Swedish origin that refers to the idea of a "representative of the people" (used, for example, in newspapers and public authorities). The ombudsman stops the direct, performative and ethnographic listening with the people through this long-term research action of the public of the museum and now of the passers-by on Las Ramblas. The actors and actresses of this action are the medium of this ethnography, audience consultancy, invisible theatre, and the lifts and the street are the spaces of this return to the institution with the theme of the current exhibition at the centre.

Through these interactions and using ethnographic, invisibility and observational methodologies, the spontaneous perceptions of people and visitors about the street, the city, art, Santa Mònica and the theme of the current exhibition cycle are collected.

Social (contact) lift - "Do you come here often?" is a performative prototype of a long-term study of audiences and spaces promoted by the Spaces Guild (Pedro Bennaton and Anna Solanilla) in the framework of their artistic research of Situated Observations, to find performative strategies to diminish or relativise the distance between the Santa Mònica and its surroundings. The first edition took place in December 2022 and the "utopian" edition between April and May 2023.

Project promoted by the Spaces Guild of Santa Mònica

By Pedro Bennaton (text and research script) with the collaboration of Anna Solanilla.

With the participation of actors and actresses Clei Grött, Luana Raiter, Miguel Valenzuela, Teresa Sanz.

Clei Grött is an actor, performer and playwright. He performs in theatre plays, street and urban intervention projects, and film projects.

Luana Raiter is an actress, playwright, performer, producer, Doctor in Theatre (UDESC, 2022) and co-founder of the collective ERRO Grupo (2001).

Miguel Ángel Valenzuela is an urban semiologist, researcher, artist and PhD in Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Barcelona.

Teresa Sanz is a researcher and artist specialising in street theatre. She works with artistic practices linked to socio-environmental conflicts.

Pedro Bennaton is a researcher, director, playwright and PhD in Theatre (thesis: "Teatre de situacions", UDESC, 2020). Co-founder of ERRO Grup (2001).