elephant head

After a retrospective that had them revisiting all their works in GAM in 2024, the Silencio Blanco company resumes creation with “Cabeza de Elefante”, its fifth stage project. Directed by Santiago Tobar, the play tells the story of a man who falls ill and loses his memory and then his identity, transmuting from a man to an elephant.

Inspired by a true story, the work is constructed as a delicate and profound metaphor about memory and oblivion. Starting from the ancestral figure of the elephant - an animal with infinite memory - creation asks what happens when remembering is no longer possible: what is lost, what remains and who we are when memories begin to fade.

In this production, Silencio Blanco deepens its recognized line of scenic research, shifting the focus from collective memory to individual memory. Through the manipulation of puppets, a delicate visual poetics and a sensitive scenic language, the work invites us to travel the intimate journey of a man who forgets, opening questions about what insists on remaining.

“After having focused on particular and universal characters, on Chilean trades that are lost, a tragedy that is overlooked, we find it tremendously challenging and interesting this time to delve into individual memory, and from this place talk about existence," says Dominga Gutiérrez, creative producer.

"We are inspired by an animal, ancestral, particular, powerful, heavy, with infinite memory: an elephant. We are inspired by those who remain, by those who keep their memories, treasure them," adds director Santiago Tobar.

With this project, the company invites us to question the concept of “memory” and “forgetting”, the memories we select and the abandonment that exists as a society towards people who get sick, who cannot keep up with the pace in which we are inserted as a productive system. As has been the development in previous projects, Silencio Blanco is based on a methodology that includes deep periods of research in the field, theoretical but also ethnographic investigations, led by those who are its inspiration.

Elephant Head is co-produced by Figurteatret i Nordland (Nordland Visual Theatre, Stamsund) and Het Lab Hasselt (Belgium). It also has financing from the Performing Arts Fund in its Creation line - Call 2025 and is part of the Management Plan of the Silencio Blanco Company 2025-2027 - Trajectory Companies - Funded by the National Fund for the Promotion and Development of the Performing Arts, Call 2025.

Company: Silencio Blanco | Artistic director: Santiago Tobar | Creative producer Dominga Gutiérrez | Performers Camilo Yáñez, Marco Reyes, Karin Mayorinca, José Calderón | Sound design and musical composerRicardo Pacheco | Lighting design Paulo Letelier, Santiago Tobar | Puppet Making: Santiago Tobar | ManagementDominga Gutiérrez, Camila Casanova | Communications Francisca Yévenes - Loica Comunicación y Cultura | Graphic designDaniel Hanselmann | Costume design and construction Nicole Salgado

Support Fira de Titelles de Lleida | Sponsor Cultural Center Estación Mapocho
Support Fira de Titelles de Lleida, Loica Comunicación y Cultura | Sponsor Cultural Center Estación Mapocho | GAM COPRODUCTION