Free admission

Performance Moritūrī tē salūtant (Those who are about to die salute you)

Morituri te salutant is a scenic and community project that, through an analogy between the naumachiae of ancient Rome, the ancestral ball game ulama, and the football of our times, explores violence, the culture of war, and how it has permeated our collective identity. At the same time, it uses these games as a mirror in which our folklore is reflected, so as to intuit through it what we are, were, and will be.

This multidisciplinary piece arises as a response to the search for the origins of Colombia’s eternal armed conflict, a search that ends up flowing into a polyphonic and timeless narrative about how war seems to be anchored to our origin as a species; at the same time, it becomes an uninterrupted action of play, invocation, acceptance, and celebration.

This work inaugurates an investigation of sport as a sensitive-expressive medium, specifically football as a popular dance and community performance, putting into tension the encounters and mismatches between this popular sport and the world of contemporary art.

About Checho Tamayo

In his own words, Checho Tamayo tells us about his story and the beginning of this project:

I am from Medellin, Colombia. I have been watching and playing football for as long as I can remember. At thirteen, I joined Deportivo Independiente Medellin, the team I had watched play every Sunday like mass since I was little, the team my father supported, the team of the people, of the losers, the team of those who had no reason to follow it and yet loved it.

I was at Medellin for three years. During this time, aside from receiving training close to military discipline, I heard and saw many stories that, although they were part of my everyday life, today I understand were stories of a relentless war. At sixteen, I emigrated to try my luck as a footballer abroad. I am not sure that what I tried was luck. First, I spent three years in Texas, United States, then I passed through Mexico, where I lived for a year between Leon and Guadalajara, and finally ended up in Spain. It is here where, after training and working as a sports coach, I gradually shifted my creative passion from football to the performing arts. I have been working professionally in these since 2017. However, all these years of migration and movement, driven, among other things, by the simplicity of a game, have made me want to believe that behind the fabric of football there is a chapter of our own collective body yet to be danced.

Moritūrī tē salūtant is a co-production of the Festival MeetYou and Teatro Calderón Valladolid with the support of INJUVE, Pasoa2, Surge Madrid, and Baratza Aretoa.