Into the Arena emerged from the artist’s sustained research into ritual, symbolism, and the cultural construction of identity within performative tradition. The project was initiated following a visiting lecture tour in Spain in 2016, where the artist became interested in how national identity is expressed through ceremonial and symbolic practices. Central to the work is an exploration of Corrida de toros as a complex cultural ritual embedded within Spanish history, aesthetics, and collective imagination. Rather than approaching bullfighting as spectacle alone, the project examines its symbolic architecture — the choreography of confrontation, endurance, mortality, and honour.

The artist undertook extensive literary and historical research into the figure of Toro de Lidia, whose cultural meaning extends beyond physical strength to encompass ideas of dignity, resistance, and transformation. Of particular interest was the tradition of El Toro Indultado, where exceptional performance allows the bull to be pardoned rather than killed, reframing combat as a path toward survival and symbolic transcendence. Into the Arena reflects on how national identity is often sustained through ritualised narratives, where performance, heritage, and collective memory converge. The work situates cultural tradition as a living system of meaning, exploring how identity is negotiated through embodied symbolism, tension, and release.

Synopsis