Artist and choreographer Gustavo Ciríaco (Rio de Janeiro, 1969) temporarily takes over the Engawa Space to create the performance ‘Caravanserá’, a multi-sensory and collective parade involving the participation of various performers and the public.

The parade is planned as part of a new project, with the same title, which Gustavo Ciríaco is developing during an open residency that combines the visual arts, dance and performance in a site-specific context. The title evokes the name given to age-old roadside inns on the Silk Route, places to socialise and swap stories, and where travellers could find shelter and rest.

Over the course of this residency, the artist invites the public to participate in diverse workshops on dance, music, sewing and set design, featuring various collaborations. During the workshops, several elements of the parade will be designed and created, including the choreography, accessories and costumes, the set and music. These elements and interactive devices will be used by the performers and other participants in the parade.

The accessories and costumes, as well as the set design – which plays a central role in the parade – are inspired by the sculptures made by the artist’s mother, the Rio-based artist Maria José de Figueiredo Ciríaco (1939-2020). These small, handmade and interactive artifacts called ‘poetry-pouches’, made of paper and other recycled materials, and designed to hold poems, are produced here on an enhanced scale. The colour and multiplicity of shapes within these artifacts evoke the international maritime signal flag system that Maria José used in her original ‘poetry-pouches’, real, coloured flags that correspond to a letter or number, forming a language (text, colour and forms) with infinite variations. Some of these texts and stories are at the root of the creation of the samba performed during the parade.

The meeting point for the Carnival parade is under the Engawa – the large canopy at the entrance to CAM – at 15:30. The parade will be filmed.

This project is associated with the exhibition ‘Complexo Brasil’.