A Boca do Atlas
By Gaya de Medeiros and Ary Zara
Event Slider
Date
- / Cancelled / Sold out
Location
Main Staircase Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationDuration: 45 min.
“Personal archives, of dance and artistic nudes, intersect on the bodies of two trans people. The performance is a study on nudity and, at times, its antagonistic social relationship with regard to the subjectification of bodies, shaking archetypes from within and creating subtle tensions between daily life and history, public and private, the erotic and the political. What if I could enter into your life (unclothed)?”
— Gaya de Medeiros and Ary Zara
The dissemination of artistic nudes at the start of the 20th century served as a theme for an invitation aimed at artists who make use of the naked body in their work. How does the nude body of today echo those from the beginning of the century? What form might free dance take today?
These questions are addressed in A Boca do Atlas [The Mouth of the Atlas], by Gaya de Medeiros and Ary Zara, following on from and in dialogue with the performance No body never mind, 002, by Ana Borralho & João Galante, presented on the same day. In the end, there is a talk between the four artists, moderated by João Manuel de Oliveira.
Also earlier on the same day, under the theme of Free dances, the artist Sofia Neuparth premieres the performance Coração-mão [Heart-Hand] with the students from the Portuguese National Conservatory School of Dance (EDCN).
*Performance with full nudity
Accompanied by a live drawing session – CORPAÇAS – organized by the Queer Art Lab and Lisbon Drawing Club.
Image © Mário Bettencourt. BRABA Plataforma
Ary Zara (1986, Lisbon) is a trans non-binary multidisciplinary artist and activist. They premiered their first short film at Indie Lisboa 2022, An Avocado Pit, and have won awards at festivals such as the BFI, AFI Fest, Clermont Ferrand, and others. They are the creative director of Queer Art Lab – a platform that supports LGBTQI+ artists and the community. They perform solo and with Isaac dos Santos in T Guys Cuddle Too. More recently, they joined the BRABA platform as a performer.
Gaya de Medeiros (1990, Belo Horizonte) is a multidisciplinary artist and producer. For nine years, she was a dancer at Palácio das Artes Dance Company (BR). In Portugal, she collaborated with various dance, performance and theatre creators. She has staged two shows, BAqUE and Atlas da Boca, which was elected one of the best of 2021 by the Expresso newspaper. She founded BRABA.plataforma, which aims to support, enable and fund initiatives by the trans community.
dance not dance
This event is included in the (re)performances, films and talks series which constitutes the first part of dance not dance – archaeologies of the new dance in Portugal. More info.
Credits
Creation
Ary Zara and Gaya de Medeiros
Management
Irreal
Commission and production
dança não dança / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.
