Idiota [Idiot] is born from painting. It is a canvas that has become a box. Translucent, reflective, and permeable, it is simultaneously a showcase and a mirror. It is a multifaceted box: a house-box, a plantation-box, a space for retreat and extreme exposure, a prison-box, a party-box, a tent-box, a buoy-box, a phone booth, an airport terminal, an immune-box, an unpunishable-box, a dressing room-box. It is also a portable theater, and therefore, open to all figures that want to be projected there.
Idiota is also the name of the figure that deliberately sneaked into this box, with the intention of spying on a creature, Élpis…
The myth of Pandora probably arose in response to the old question: why do people get sick and die? Why do bad things happen?
Included in the dance not dance programme, this performance created in 2022 is presented in Portugal for the first time, in dialogue with another performance, Miquelina e Miguel, by Miguel Pereira, which takes place on 4 February, 2024. Under the motto Unearthing memories of dance, there is a talk with that same title, about the presence of black bodies and Afro-diasporic narratives in Portuguese dance, also on 4 February.
This performance uses strobe lighting
Image © BEA BORGES/ kfda
Marlene Monteiro Freitas (1979, Cape Verde) is known for creating pieces whose hallmark is openness, hybridity, impurity and intensity. She has won numerous awards, including the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale (2020), the Chanel Next Prize (2021) and the Evens Arts Prize (2022). Since 2020, she has been a co-curator of the (un)common ground project.
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.