Miss Beige is in Malaga: the bland lady who stirs consciences with a hammer in her purse

Miss Beige neither speaks nor smiles. She dresses in a color "ugly, bland, almost like a wall." Always in the same dress, the only one she has, a ... 'vintage' model from the 70s that she bought for one euro at the Rastro market in Madrid ten years ago. Ana Esmith is completely different. She talks a lot, smiles constantly, and today is dressed in striking yellow. But they are the same person, and both are in Málaga. The actress, journalist, and performer will take her 'alter ego' for a walk around the city this Saturday, as part of the Live Arts Festival organized by the municipal museums agency and curated by Pedro A. Cruz and Cintia Gutiérrez. All those who feel "beige" are invited: the meeting is at 12:00 at the Pompidou cube.

She is the anti-heroine of ordinary people. A seemingly harmless, discreet, average, and quiet woman. But she never lacks her hammer in her purse. "When people look at Miss Beige, from top to bottom or bottom to top, they find the hammer and that moment is wonderful, because it completely changes the perception of Miss Beige. Beware of assumptions," she warns. It is the confirmation that behind that nondescript image there is a fight, like a pile driver, to defend those who, like her, are voiceless. "She is a loudspeaker for all those people who have no way to express their needs. As a society, we will only advance if we protect the weakest, because the strong are already taking care of running the world," she reflects. This is not new to her. In school, she was already called "the lawyer of the poor," and the emergence of Miss Beige has only amplified this.

Her mission is to stop and look, something as simple and as difficult as that. "She is a person who observes a lot and gets involved in what happens in our day-to-day life, simply to make us aware of it. She stops and looks, something that most of us, due to the lifestyle that capitalism imposes on us, do not do." And this leads her to denounce the housing crisis, take a stand on scandals like the acquittal of Dani Alves, or criticize the difficulties of the self-employed. She encourages reflection by generating strangeness, disconcerting those in front of her, unable to understand who she is and what that person seemingly from another era wants.

Even her gesture, serious and straight at all times, invites reflection. "These are liberties we should all take, because there are days when you don't feel like smiling," she points out. It is assumed that we must be happy and content. "If someone asks you how you are and you say 'I'm not well.' People get scared," she explains. We prefer the fake smile, "and then we have to go to a Pilates class to relieve all the stress that brings us." In her opinion, "maybe not smiling also does us good as a society." And that doesn't mean we are bad or unhappy, just that we resist "playing a game that we all know doesn't always bring good consequences for mental health."

Ana Esmith speaks behind her black glasses to maintain some of the mystery that always surrounds her. Because that is not her real name either. On her ID card, it reads Ana Gallego, a surname that the English pronounced in many different ways—except the correct one—during the long time she lived in England. So she changed it to another that sounded familiar to them but had that exotic touch that betrayed her as a foreigner. Ten years ago, she returned to Madrid. A journalist and actress, she has worked in creative theater and was accustomed to creating situations. But the performance was born when she found that old polyester dress, "so ugly and so abandoned," at the market and decided to give it another life. "If I hadn't found it, maybe Miss Beige wouldn't exist today. It was through the dress that I started to unravel the thread, and that same Sunday afternoon I already had Miss Beige in my house," she recalls.

"I'm not interested in famous monuments or the life that is displayed on networks. I'm interested in what is not shown and the people who do not appear."

She assures that Miss Beige goes more unnoticed than we imagine. She usually goes to the suburbs, to the outskirts of cities. "I'm not interested in famous monuments or the life that is displayed on networks. I'm interested in what is not shown and the people who do not appear. In those circles, I completely go unnoticed and I love it." She says that older people always tell her she looks very elegant, and she responds by shaking their hands in a gesture of thanks. In more modern environments, in cities, things change. "Sometimes those of us who are more cultured have more problems than people with a lower cultural level, who accept things much more. Sometimes we think we are above good and evil because we have read many more books or something like that."

Ana says that we all "have a Miss Beige inside." 'It shows, it feels, beige is inclusive' is, in fact, the title of the performance she will do in Málaga, where she has already made her mark on other occasions with Moments. Now she makes a call to the 'beige' in spirit to meet this Saturday with her at 12:00 at the Pompidou. "People have to come in beige with a hammer in their purse although I always say that they can bring their own concept. Everyone has to find their way to be beige." From the Pompidou, they will walk towards the Birthplace of Picasso. "And it's wonderful because the weird ones are those who don't go in beige (...) It's good to turn around what society is. I find it fun, empowering, and it allows us to reflect on how others see us, how we look at others, what happens when we feel observed."