Tomorrow Day

What does the Thyssen Museum in Madrid, the actress Aída Folch, and a group of breakdance dancers have in common?.

I don’t remember at what time we entered the museum. I only know that we waited a long time to let us in. “You have to wait,” they said, “for the right moment to get the material in.” I remember the feeling of being among those with tattoos, tank tops, prominent beards, and a spirit that echoed particularly on those walls full of history.

“With discretion”, they said, “enter this room”, to wait for the museum to close and we could start with the photo. We were left at the temporary exhibit hall, where they were preparing the Gauguin exhibition, and they came and went frequently to see what we were doing. It wasn’t long before the security guard arrived to remind us that “we were in a museum” when one of the dancers decided to put on some music to warm up. Since they were not taken for granted, the guards finally had to give in, asking nothing more than to be careful with the newly painted walls.

And I was wondering: what do the Thyssen Museum in Madrid, Aída Folch and a group of breakdance dancers have in common?

Pablo and his crutch had been stumbling for a long time among the Thyssen’s organization. And if we add the leg pain to the multiple headaches that they gave him from “unknown” parts of the equation: that if such person was going to dress in such a way, that if the camera’s driver was not working to make the previews, that if we have less time to be there than we expected. To my surprise, Pablo Lecroisey endured all this downpour with a smile, good cheer and without, at least apparently, excessive concern.

When Aída left the dressing room, accompanied by her army of assistants (brushes, hair dryers and dresses in hand), she swept off the floor of the Thyssen any contained pressure. Her squander humility and the characteristic force with which she usually pierces the screen. Just with her presence, the puzzle began to get complete.

With all the equipment complete, ready and on time, we were able to enter room 28 on the first floor and “turn the site upside down”. Flashes, cables, tripods, and other technical material came and went in a constant stir, under the terrified gaze from the guards. White flashes and noises of slipping shoes filled the room. They came to serve as a soundtrack, along with small cries of order, to compose a painting that was beginning to be seen. An image that, until then, only existed in the photographer’s imagination.

And then, as Pablo began to put each piece in its place on the board, I began to understand the reason for this madness.

“Tomorrow Day” we will have a world where people will be dancing in museums. Where people who previously did not see beyond straightness and monotony, will realize that it is in the curves and in the air where the true essence of life is. Where those people caught between money and art, will break their chains and be proud of being poor. That future, which is getting closer and closer, is what motivated Pablo to put himself amid extremely diverse influences to unite them for a moment and draw us closer to a vision whose harmony resides in discordance.

So, as the minutes ticked by, what was skeptical looks and prejudices at first, turned to laughter. What were barriers at first, became bridges. What was originally a museum, became something else. A strange amalgam of energy was captured in a single instant, in a different way from the paintings that populate the walls, but also resonating in the future, in history, as each contribution of every human being does on this troubled planet.

When we left the museum, night had entered. Closing the museum, loading materials, moving vans and extremely exhausted, each group returned to its natural ecosystem, taking something of the others with them, something indefinable, that perhaps they did not immediately understand, but that undoubtedly was there, floating in the environment.

So if you ever ask us, we will tell you that the Thyssen Museum, Aida Folch and a group of breakdancers have a lot in common.