“My early training in theater was shaped by Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, and especially Adolph Appia, Edward Gordon Craig, and Oskar Schlemmer and the Bauhaus, whose visionary approaches sparked my views on experimental artwork. They revealed the stage as a living medium, guiding me toward a practice grounded in plasticity, visual dramaturgy, and the interplay of movement, image, and space. Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi introduced me to absurdity as a means of facing tradition and revealing deeper truths. The fragmented, anti-logical narratives of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco —mavericks of the Theater of the Absurd— further expanded a formal language rooted in existential inquiry and theatrical subversion.

In Europe, I explored the convergence of arts through the work of dramaturg Heiner Müller, theater-dance pioneer Pina Bausch, and Spanish visionaries like the artist/writer Joan Brossa, alongside the powerful company La Fura dels Baus. Around that time, another major influence entered my life: the Japanese Butoh master Kazuo Ohno. Drawn to the trailblazing legacy of Black Mountain College and the Theater of Images, I relocated to New York, where I collaborated with Robert Wilson and completed a PhD dissertation on his creative process. My academic work also brought me the choreographic innovations of Martha Graham and Trisha Brown Dance Company, while I engaged with boundary-desfying artists and thinkers like Laurie Anderson, The Wooster Group, Anne Bogart, Richard Schechner, and Marsha Kinder. Along the way, I had the privilege of meeting Philip Glass through the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), and through The Watermill Center, Susan Sontag and Isabella Rossellini.

These experiences collectively revealed how cross-disciplinary art can redefine storytelling and dissolve hierarchies in the arts. The use of time, space, and interactivity took me toward a model of performance that is non-linear and immersive. At the same time, my drive for contemporary art expanded my idea of the stage as an open environment where language, image, and presence collide —from the radical experimentation of Dadaism and Surrealism, to the spatial poetics of Minimalism and the innovations of artists like Picasso, and later Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, and Marina Abramović. A blend that continues informing a creative practice that moves between performance, installation, and conceptual art.

The influence of filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Italian Neorealism, and the French Nouvelle Vague provided a cinematic mirror to my early contact with experimental theater. Their poetic imagery, formal innovation, and socio-political critique resonated altogether. Global cinema and cross-cultural narratives unfolded as a continuation of theater’s expressive potential. Later, the introspective minimalism of Kim Ki-duk, the sensual fragmentation of Wong Kar-wai, the psychological surrealism of David Lynch, and the emotionally saturated worlds of Pedro Almodóvar further bridged my background in performance and contemporary art with film. Their distinct approaches to identity, memory, and time opened up a cinematic space where theatrical language and visual composition could merge.

This evolution naturally brought the anti-realism of absurdist theater and the disruptive aesthetics of avant-garde art in my filmmaking —inspiring fragmented structures, surreal imagery, and unconventional characters. Digital media became an extension of interdisciplinary vocabularies, carrying forward a spirit of research rooted in hybrid forms and new narratives. Today, this multicultural foundation frames my work across filmmaking, visual theater, writing, and visual art. It fuels an ongoing search of emerging technologies —AI, XR, and the expanded realms of cyberspace— as both material and metaphor in the unfolding landscape of artistic expression. A new chapter is beginning.” — Pedro Valiente

It All Started in Theater

Tracing New Geographies

“Pedro Valiente’s multidisciplinary theater training comes from the search in performance, visual media, and cultural narratives. Influenced by radical thinkers and artists of the 20th century, he learned to view the stage as a dynamic medium. These early education through theater’s transformative potential shaped a practice grounded in the interplay of body, image, and space.

His exploration continued through the work of pioneers whose visionary approaches expanded the language of theater. However, it was the Japanese Butoh dance what deeply influenced his artistic vision, introducing Valiente to the profound dimensions of experimental theater-dance. This study led him to integrate the silence and meditative qualities of Butoh into his performances.

Valiente’s academic journey in New York further broadened his artistic vocabulary. Immersed in the experimental arts scene, deepening his understanding of performance’s physicality and presence. His research on Robert Wilson’s creative process, and interdisciplinary art, culminated in a PhD dissertation, which positioned him among a generation of artists merging theater and visual art.

These diverse influences led to Valiente's groundbreaking work in visual theater time after the early experience of Tilmun Teatro in Madrid’s university. The company became a pioneer in integrating video, live performance, and contemporary music —using technology as a means of expanding narrative in a fragmented, multimedia dialogue.

Valiente’s work on stage incorporated film, installation, and new media. Drawing inspiration from European masters who shaped his early filmmaking training, he continued to work on visual storytelling. The aesthetics of these filmmakers, alongside the introspective minimalism of Asian directors, informed his approach to creating emotionally rich visual landscapes.

Today, Valiente’s aims to use technology in theater and film to enhance storytelling and deepen audience engagement. His ongoing projects are open to physicality and digital environments, echoing evolving narrative forms.” Flying Fish Work I EXTERNAL REVIEW