“Masaje Scanner” is the third in a series of massages that Idoia Zabaleta began in 2017 with “Masaje de texto” and continued in 2021 with “Pupa, pupita, pupila. Un masaje de la visión”. On 20 May 2023, she inaugurated this piece, which was conceived for the Atoi space (Bilbao), in her first exhibition, coinciding with the launch of the critical review and annotated bibliography dedicated to Idoia on foku.info by the artists’ cooperative Tractora Koop E.
In autumn 2025, with the support and guidance of Tractora, a self-supporting version of “Masaje Scanner” is created and presented for the first time at Halfhouse (Barcelona), as part of Sâlmon Festival.
Idoia will operate the “Masaje Scanner” machine in five daily sessions as a performance for a single person.
The performance begins with the reception of one person at a time. In an antechamber, a film projector projects a dance of three Rs onto a beam of fog (Rare, Romantic, Real). “R-Isadora” is the preliminary piece, the opening act, which proposes a first copy of light. When the fog dissipates and the mirrored dance of the Rs ends, you are invited to lie down on a stretcher, where the zero gesture of kinetics, continuous movement, begins to roll. A 30-metre fabric slides over your body. At face level and over your open eyes, two overlapping layers of colour follow one another, from pink to yellow and red, interrupted by the black lines of the signs printed on the fabric. At the same time, the body vibrates on a stretcher that emits the repetition of five Rs, tongue and palate, emitted by a subwoofer at the height of the sacrum. This sound overlaps with a mantra that cries out a spell of the times: as romantic as it is realistic, radiating radiance, raging with rage and becoming radical from the root.
Idea and activation: Idoia Zabaleta Morán
Production design: Ainara Elgoibar and Usue Arrieta Otaola
Production: Tractora Koop E
Structure manufacturing and assembly: Adrián Castañeda
Structure design consulting: Carlos García
Materials: Hierros Etxebarria, Plásticos Zabálburu
Screws: Consumisa | Oxycutting: Hierros La Vega
Bluing: Pavonados Asúa
Studio recordings: Ibon Aguirre at Audiogela
Electronics: Radio Rhin
Fabric printing: Waixo
Sewing: Begoña Carro
Telecine: Sebastjan Henrickson at Niagara Custom Labs
16mm looper and technical assistance: Crater Lab
Automation: Adrian Laurel
Audio system consulting: Tunipanea
Graphic animation consulting: Manu Arregi
Editing at Half House: Victor Ruiz Colomer
Special thanks: Juan González and Leticia Morales
Financial support: Azala, Tractora Koop E, Department of Culture of the Basque Government, and Azkuna Zentroa. Idoia Zabaleta Morán is an artist in residence at AZ in 2024-2025.