Lola Arias

Lola Arias studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires, dramaturgy at the School of Dramatic Art, and theater with Ricardo Bartís and Pompeyo Audivert. She also studied dramaturgy in London at the Royal Court Theatre[2] and in Madrid at the Casa de América. She founded the Postnuclear Company, an interdisciplinary group of artists with whom she develops various theater, literature, music, and visual arts projects. She composes music for their works with Ulises Conti.[3][4]

Her work is wide and varied, including literature, theater, poetry, music, performances, films, and stories in Argentine magazines and newspapers. She collaborates with artists from different disciplines on art, music, and film projects. Her compositions cross the border between fiction and reality. In collaboration with the Swiss artist Stefan Kaegi she developed documentary theater projects such as Chácara Paraíso and Airport Kids.[1][3]

In theater, Arias has incorporated not only actors into her work, but also policemen, beggars, dancers, prostitutes, musicians, children, and animals. In her play Striptease (2007), the protagonist is a one-year-old baby;[5] in El amor es un francotirador (2008), a rock band plays live while the actors tell love stories; in Mi vida después (2009), six young people reconstruct, from letters, photos, used clothes, cassettes, etc., the youth of their parents in the 1970s.[6]

Her texts have been translated into seven languages and presented at festivals around the world, such as Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Festival d'Avignon, Theater Spektakel in Zurich, We are Here in Dublin, Spielart Festival in Munich, Alkantara Festival in Lisbon, Radicals Festival in Barcelona, Under the Radar Festival in New York,[7] and in art spaces such as Red Cat LA, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis,[8] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Arias was not involved in creating the film's titular work, and publicly denounced director Ruben Östlund for using her name without her consent.[9] Östlund initially denied the allegation, saying that she had agreed to it and was misremembering their interaction. He provided proof of the veracity of his story in the form of an interview he conducted with Lola Arias about the creation of The Square.[10][11][12]

However, in March 2023, Östlund's production company released a public apology: [13]

We understand that the use of Lola Arias’ name, which was not discussed as clearly as it should have been, created a misunderstanding connecting her work as an artist to the artwork The Square shown in the film. All reference to the artist Lola Arias as the creator of the artwork is fictional. We would like to offer an apology to Lola Arias for the way her name was used in the fiction film The Square.

— Plattform Produktion

• Las impúdicas en el paraíso (poetry collection, 2000)
• La escuálida familia (theater, performed at the Teatro Rojas, 2001)
• Estudios de la memoria amorosa (theater, performed at the Centro Experimental del Colón, 2003)
• Poses para dormir (theater, 2004)
• Trilogy Striptease, Sueño con revólver, and El amor es un francotirador (theater, Ed. Entropía, 2004)[5]
• El amor es un francotirador (album of music together with Ulises Conti, 2007)
• Familienbande (theater, 2009)
• Mi nombre cuando yo ya no exista (theater, Ed. Cierto Pez, Chile, 2009)
• That enemy with in (theater, 2010)
• Los posnucleares (book of short stories, Ed. Emecé, 2011)
• Los que no duermen (album of music together with Ulises Conti, 2011)
• Melancolía y Manifestaciones (theater, 2012)
• El año en que nací (theater, 2012)[7]
• El arte de hacer dinero (theater, inspired by The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, 2013)[4]
• Mis documentos (cycle of performance lectues, 2012, 2013, 2014)

• 2014 Konex Award Diploma of Merit as one of the five most important figures in Argentine letters in the discipline "Teatro: Quinquenio 2009–2013"[1]

• Official website
• Lola Arias at IMDb