Seeing her on the beaches of Malaga is difficult not to look at her. From very early, Alessandra García walks through the coast in a striking red dress and a Gopro camera holds the chest height. While she walks slowly, there are those who think she returns from a after or that is part of the Google Maps team. Every day he performs an 18 -kilometer stage, which records and publishes in the Strava application, focused on athletes. But it is no sporting challenge, it is about THE WORK OF THE SEAan artistic project that will last this month and with which this 41 -year -old Malaga wants to claim the Mediterranean culture, to worship the sea and celebrate the rituals of a place, the beach, which does not understand social classes. “It is one of the few sites that we have left that they are free and are not completely crossed by capitalism,” says Garcia, who after the first days is effusive with experience. Also tired. “I am stiff,” said Monday 4 between laughs and yawns.
THE WORK OF THE SEA It seems crazy because it implies a whole month. Even more with high temperatures and because he has chosen the days in which more people are on vacation. “But there are many families, such as mine, who are dedicated to tourism, hotels and hospitality, for whom this is the time when you work the most of the year,” Garcia told El País, quieter, days before putting into action a project that had been ruminating more than a decade, and that has been possible thanks to an unexpected call. It was in 2022, when one afternoon his mobile began to sound and on the screen you could see a name that did not expect: Antonio Banderas. They had met shortly before, on the occasion of the Max awards that both received that year and the actor called her because she wanted to produce her next job. “I have a crazy idea,” she replied. He laughed, listened and accepted. “The project told me and I wanted to participate because it is such a novel idea. I like to believe in people of my land, people who are worth as much as Alessandra, with great initiative,” says Banderas, producer of this project with the artist Violeta Niebla.
That conversation was the first step of this action, which started on August 1 in Manilva and will take place, almost without rest, until the last day of the month. In addition to walks along the Malaga coast, it includes coexistence with local families and performances With the public as the protagonist. “The idea is to tell a whole day on the beach, but over a month,” says the artist. From putting the umbrella to take a walk along the shore or protect yourself from the sun. The work pivotes among its roles as a cultural manager, playwright, director, actress and performer. This will be the first year, but not the last one, of this work: the goal of repeating it every August from different cities of the Mediterranean has been marked. “It’s very crazy and I have come very up, but I’ve been wanting to do something that occupies my entire life,” he emphasizes. Each winter, all its materials – of the costumes to the photographs or interviews in format podcast– You can see and listen in the Museum and Center for Contemporary Art of Malaga (MUCAC).
‘Salt del Agua’
Among other actions, a entitled has planned Get out of the water, what He is inspired by that phrase so pronounced by mothers to their children during the summer on the beach. What is it? It intends to be, from the sun rises until it puts it, inside the sea. It will be this Saturday, August 16, and will look for options to move along the coast, either in a mat, water motorcycle, surf paddle table or what arises. It will enter Playa Virginia (El Palo) and will leave in Benalmádena, more than 20 kilometers west, where her mother will wait for her with a towel. Your family will also be essential in the following performanceon August 23 in Playamar (Torremolinos), where they will be buried under the sand, as many boys and girls do every summer to play.
Before that, the last section of the project will have begun, The ritual. It will be held at the Beach of Mercy, west of Malaga, between Tuesday 19 and Friday 22, and It includes public participation. There will be 40 people – who must acquire their entrance – who will become protagonists as soon as they enter the beach. García’s instructions will follow to execute a shirt choreography that will include throwing the towel, putting on the umbrella, sorting sunscreen or wetting the dolls and neck before entering the water, as recommended by tradition. In between, the dancers Laura Morales and Alberto Velasco will perform a piece.
The icing will put it Verism is thisacting for five days – from August 27 to 31, with a capacity also of 40 people – in which the artist, with the participation of different social groups, will pronounce a declaration of love to the sea and ask for “permission” to let him “do this during the rest” of his life.
Garcia points out that throughout the month anyone can enjoy their performances Through its social networks and platforms where their daily routes is publishing, in addition to the interviews with the families with which the first days between Manilva and Nerja were housed.