The incursions of Pedro G. Romero into the world of flamenco began in 1995 when, in conjunction with the cantaor Chano Lobato, amongst others, he designed the project Fla-co-men. However, it was from 1998 onwards, with the production of the show Los zapatos rojos (Red Shoes) in collaboration with the bailaor Israel Galván, that Pedro G. Romero came to see his interventions in the form and the world of flamenco as an essential part of his work. “I started to see coincidences with the practice of art and began to systematise the relations with this thing that is somehow organic, that expands and contracts in different types of territories and that is called flamenco.” (1)

His productions, characterised by their radical staging, are grouped under the title of Máquina P.H., a project that allows Pedro G. Romero to assume an artistic collaboration in flamenco performances without identifying his personal contribution. In this sense Máquina P.H. is a device, a working machine that offers a system for dissolving the idea of authorship, reducing it to a simple gesture, one of the axes around which the artist’s work turns. “Modern art is legitimised by the progression of the individual, as opposed to flamenco, in which the ideas come out of the collision between the artists and the creative processes are collective. At present art does not have as its end the production of an object or a commodity, but everything is marketable. The logic with which the market has worked until now is in crisis, and other routes are being considered, like the experience of theatre. I believe people do understand contemporary art. The problem arises when it comes to valuing what they see and this should be the function of the exhibitions. They should contribute to organising the way in which people look, not simply limiting themselves to displaying objects, which is what they usually do.” (2)

(1) Margot Molina entrevista a Pedro G. Romero a El País (Babelia), 14 setembre 2002
(2) Op. cit.

Máquina P.H. also includes materials in other formats: collections of postcards, books or music. The document MACBA Collection includes:

Danza. El tiempo en Sevilla
Set of postcards. Huelva, 1997.

Caprichos
Publication. Seville: Stage Notebooks, Junta de Andalucía, 1998.

La Metamorfosis
Set of postcards. Seville: Israel Galván Company, 2000.

H. Pedro G. Romero & Chirigota del Selu
Music CD. Cadiz: ZAP-BNV productions, 2001.

Farruca del día once
Graphic material. 2002

Máquina de la soleá
Music CD. 2002