Laia Estruch
estruch.laia@gmail.com
My artistic practice delves into the language of the body and the voice, on the threshold between sculpture and performance.
Treating the voice as the principle device and instrument to develop my projects, I am interested in finding new ways of working with orality and listening while inhabiting the structures that I myself design.
Using the spoken word, song, objects and publications, my projects analyse the emotive possibilities of the a cappella voice and the undramatized body, opening a space of reflection in relation to the performative character of language, sound recording and its oral archive.
I design object-based and sculptural series conceived as laboratories open to the public, spaces for sound experimentation that allow me to carry both body and word to the terrain of action through the voice, sonorous and gestural. Therefore one of the major features of my work is based on exploring scores in the physical realm of the stage.
In my most recent work I have investigated how urban spaces and their physical structures play an important role in our everyday society lives. I have been experimenting with reinterpreting the sculptural design of children’s “playgrounds” as a space of resistance that accentuates the potential of vulnerability in the total exhibition of the body and its spirit of survival by means of the voice, questioning its uses, functions and accidents.
In recent years I have collaborated with professionals from other disciplines, such as musicians, graphic designers and poets, all of whom have been a constant source of knowledge for me. These experiences have allowed me to explore different facets of my projects. For this reason, some of the features that have ended up shaping my work have tangible consequences on the level of graphic design, publications, installations and music.