HERIDA
A performance work by Emé Esquivel, featuring Andrew Hutner and Celestina Billington

A Living Wound. A Collective Voice.

HERIDA

Project Description:

HERIDA is a site-specific performance that explores emotional exposure, memory, and shared vulnerability. Anchored in somatic expression and a philosophy of mutual resonance, the only “voice” in this piece is the body - dressed, moving, and offering.

At its core, HERIDA features two central performers, Andrew and Emé, dressed in sculptural tunics made of bubble wrap - a material both fragile and protective. These costumes contain velcro pouches, each holding a physical takeaway: a handwritten question on a small note. Participants are invited to reach into the performers’ garments and take one.

The questions are raw, personal, and universal:

When was the last time you cried?

What do you wish someone had said to you?

What fear are you still carrying?

By inviting reflection through these quiet provocations, HERIDA becomes not just a performance to watch - but an encounter to feel.

The choreography builds a language of mirrored movements, echoing gestures, and shared rhythm between the two performers - a kind of hivemind. Movement is guided by sound-based cues and by the energy of interaction with the public. The work evolves from dusk into night, unfolding in shaded public spaces to encourage softness, slowness, and participation.

A digital extension is planned in collaboration with DressX - using digital fashion and NFTs to preserve and reimagine the costumes and performance as digital artifacts, ensuring HERIDA continues to speak beyond the moment it lives in.

What “HERIDA” Means

Herida means “wound” in Spanish.

But this is not a story of suffering - it is a meditation on what happens after. A wound is proof that something happened. It is the mark left by life. It can be painful, but it can also be tender, beautiful, or transformative.

In this work, the wound is not hidden. It is shared.

It is physical. Emotional. Symbolic.

HERIDA is a living performance. It resists traditional theatre and invites presence, openness, and participation. There is no fourth wall - the performers are not characters, but vessels. The audience is not passive - they are witnesses, recipients, sometimes even caretakers.

It is not scripted.

It is a living offering - part ritual, part question, part mirror.

There are no lines spoken aloud, yet much is said.

The costumes speak.

The questions whisper.

The audience feels.

It is a performance to witness, to interact with, to remember.

HERIDA Is a space to feel, receive, release, and connect. It happens once. It is documented. It echoes.

HERIDA WEBSITE

The work is presented as an 'interactive living installation', at any given moment passers-by/on-lookers may approach the performers and examine them closely, however, for the sake of the piece, it is best practice not to grab, shove, or otherwise rattle said performers - however (!) there are a limited number a 'take-a-ways' attached to each performer; spectators are encouraged to take these (limit 1 per) should they decide to examine closely.