By: Ana Borralho & João Galante Premiere: Culturgest (Lisbon, Portugal / 2013) Duration: 60"
During all the performance duration, the performers stand on their knees facing a white wall.
They are reciting a text written by the author Rodrigo Garcia. At the same time the performers also play harmonicas glued on the wall in front of them. Inside the room there are some recipients with peanuts for the audience to eat. The light of the performance is on the floor behind the audience so that the moving shadows of the audience are projected on top of the wall and performers.
In this new project, Ana Borralho & João Galante’s proposal is to think about the relation between art and politics.
Through the words of author Rodrigo Garcia, and making use of a text used at a conference by the artist: “A este tipo no queremos volver a verlo”, they intend to create a moment of reflection about the loss of references of the so-called citizen and the need for poetry inherent in human beings.
According to several religions, Purgatory is the condition and cleansing process or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are prepared for the kingdom of heaven… Some believe in the possibility of purifying the souls of the dead through the prayers of the living… Purgatory is the space between heaven and hell.
We are interested in exploring the boundary / relationship between the spectator and the work, always trying to integrate the audience in the performance’s space and time. It matters to us that the actions the audience might make have a sense of responsibility.
Concept, sound and artistic direction: Ana Borralho & João Galante
Text: Rodrigo Garcia
Light design: Thomas Walgrave
Dramaturgic support: Rui Catalão, Fernando J. Ribeiro
Performers: Ana Borralho, Anta Recke, Antonia Buresi, Catarina Gonçalves, Cláudio da Silva, Daniel Melim, Elizabete Francisca, Helena Eckert, João Galante, Luis Godinho, Tiago Gandra
Translation from spanish to portuguese: José Pelicano
Translation from spanish to english: Vera Rocha and Mónica Samões
Text revision: Tiago Rodrigues
Thanks: João Fiadeiro
Support and artistic residency: Atelier Re.Al, TEL – Teatro Experimental de Lagos, LAC / LAR
Co-production: casaBranca, Culturgest
Bringing transparency to the world is always dependent on the degree of nakedness that each citizen can attain in the course of reflection and insight that unveils the organics of social and political relationships.
Maintaining the consistency and opacity of bodies arises from the surrender to their animal condition and, therefore, the notion of inseparability of bodies that partake in the same lies, the same blindness, the same innocence.
Fernando J. Ribeiro
As I had to write about “Staging and Political Order”, I started looking last night for something staging artists could have in common with politicians.
It caused me an amount of nausea looking for coincidences with this kind of people, but I continued and I thought about it, I thought about it for about three minutes, an eternity to think, one hundred and eighty seconds without the ringing of a mobile, and finally I concluded that one thing they both have in common is the lie: to lie.
Rodrigo Garcia in “A este tipo no queremos volver a verlo”.
