Portraits
Filipe Pereira
September
2021
Tue
14
About Arranjo Floral
Can we look at your show as an autobiographical work? In which way? What do you think this piece may reveal about you as a creator?
This work is autobiographical considering a particular spectrum of my life. As a creator, of course, I don’t dissociate the work from the so-called “life”. I don’t separate both fields — one is a consequence of the other and vice versa. Although, in a concrete way, abstracting the self-portrait dimension, my presence in the piece mediates the participation of other bodies, not only the human, as still or vegetable bodies. So, intersecting the floral arrangement with what I have been researching in my work as a choreographer, I get fascinated by “disrupting the hierarchy” of show’s conventions, by dispersing the choreography of the performer’s figure towards other bodies of different materials.
During your creative process, did you based or were you inspired by any autobiographical work, self-portrait, or any other reference?
In the beginning, when Lola presented her proposal, she told me about the different artists whom, until then, have integrated the cycle Mis Documentos and had the chance of seeing some of the final objects in video format. However, they were not at any time conditioning or corseting what would be created next. I remember thinking about the conference-performance OLDSCHOOL#40 by João dos Santos Martins, and the way he talks about himself when he founded the dance group, Dreams, in his adolescence in Póvoa de Santarém. I was interested in the relationship established with this information and the other distinct contents of his piece. If, somehow, the idea of autobiography always aroused in me a kind of hives to the possible irrelevance of the individual's self-exposure to others, in this proposal it was inevitable to avoid talking about myself.
Is there any portrait or self-portrait which inspires you?
There are things of different natures coming from portraits and self-portraits that I had the opportunity to see and experience in the context of the performing arts but not exclusively and that inspire me, yes. However, sometimes I don't precisely know the source which originates those same images/memories/small details, which mix in my head with other equally inspiring sources. Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando is an object that may have nourished me indirectly - a man who transforms into a woman and crosses with his/her body various times and social environments taking his/her space in multiple contexts — I relate it to what I'm living.
In which way the ritual and/or the religious are present in your performance?
It's not a case of animism, because I don't get to talk to things, but I like to see them, because they have personality. If it's ritual, I don't know, but I see it as essential actions that lead me to a special moment.
Even if can consider your work as a solo, you’ve worked with other creators and professionals, how did this external look on some more individual premises, eventually, contaminated the show and your own perspective on it?
I started by making a chronological survey of events related to flowers, dance, God and the context of the city of Fátima until then on my path. This was before I physically met Lola during a week of work in the middle of the play's creative process. I wrote many more things that, however, were put aside — that somehow opened other content themes. In addition to Lola, the work team during that week was made up of Bibiana Mendes Picado, responsible for the dramaturgical assistance, and the other two artists who integrated the cycle, Mis documentos, with their conferences at Teatro do Bairro Alto in Lisbon — Marta Mateus and Pedro Penim. Although, not only that week, but during the days before the premiere, it was a literal work of cutting and stitching the text: I was writing and rewriting, until the show, through the eyes of these people.
Why the conference format for the performance?
Arranjo Floral was created for a specific context which conditioned its format since the begin: the cycle of conference-performances, Mis documentos, from the Argentinian playwriter, Lola Arias. In this initiative, artists from different areas are invited to create a “performed” conference based on a personal research, collection, obsession, secret or interest, related to the artistic work of each participant. In my case, it was obvious from the start that the flowers would be the matter. Of course, that imagining myself speaking about anything to an audience scared me from the beginning, but that was the biggest challenge which made me accept the invitation. In this device, I recognize a force inherent in oral discourse by the direct way of communicating with people through the word as a counterpoint to a more abstract nature, such as expressing through dance.
Can we look at your show as an autobiographical work? In which way? What do you think this piece may reveal about you as a creator?
This work is autobiographical considering a particular spectrum of my life. As a creator, of course, I don’t dissociate the work from the so-called “life”. I don’t separate both fields — one is a consequence of the other and vice versa. Although, in a concrete way, abstracting the self-portrait dimension, my presence in the piece mediates the participation of other bodies, not only the human, as still or vegetable bodies. So, intersecting the floral arrangement with what I have been researching in my work as a choreographer, I get fascinated by “disrupting the hierarchy” of show’s conventions, by dispersing the choreography of the performer’s figure towards other bodies of different materials.
During your creative process, did you based or were you inspired by any autobiographical work, self-portrait, or any other reference?
In the beginning, when Lola presented her proposal, she told me about the different artists whom, until then, have integrated the cycle Mis Documentos and had the chance of seeing some of the final objects in video format. However, they were not at any time conditioning or corseting what would be created next. I remember thinking about the conference-performance OLDSCHOOL#40 by João dos Santos Martins, and the way he talks about himself when he founded the dance group, Dreams, in his adolescence in Póvoa de Santarém. I was interested in the relationship established with this information and the other distinct contents of his piece. If, somehow, the idea of autobiography always aroused in me a kind of hives to the possible irrelevance of the individual's self-exposure to others, in this proposal it was inevitable to avoid talking about myself.
Is there any portrait or self-portrait which inspires you?
There are things of different natures coming from portraits and self-portraits that I had the opportunity to see and experience in the context of the performing arts but not exclusively and that inspire me, yes. However, sometimes I don't precisely know the source which originates those same images/memories/small details, which mix in my head with other equally inspiring sources. Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando is an object that may have nourished me indirectly - a man who transforms into a woman and crosses with his/her body various times and social environments taking his/her space in multiple contexts — I relate it to what I'm living.
In which way the ritual and/or the religious are present in your performance?
It's not a case of animism, because I don't get to talk to things, but I like to see them, because they have personality. If it's ritual, I don't know, but I see it as essential actions that lead me to a special moment.
Even if can consider your work as a solo, you’ve worked with other creators and professionals, how did this external look on some more individual premises, eventually, contaminated the show and your own perspective on it?
I started by making a chronological survey of events related to flowers, dance, God and the context of the city of Fátima until then on my path. This was before I physically met Lola during a week of work in the middle of the play's creative process. I wrote many more things that, however, were put aside — that somehow opened other content themes. In addition to Lola, the work team during that week was made up of Bibiana Mendes Picado, responsible for the dramaturgical assistance, and the other two artists who integrated the cycle, Mis documentos, with their conferences at Teatro do Bairro Alto in Lisbon — Marta Mateus and Pedro Penim. Although, not only that week, but during the days before the premiere, it was a literal work of cutting and stitching the text: I was writing and rewriting, until the show, through the eyes of these people.
Why the conference format for the performance?
Arranjo Floral was created for a specific context which conditioned its format since the begin: the cycle of conference-performances, Mis documentos, from the Argentinian playwriter, Lola Arias. In this initiative, artists from different areas are invited to create a “performed” conference based on a personal research, collection, obsession, secret or interest, related to the artistic work of each participant. In my case, it was obvious from the start that the flowers would be the matter. Of course, that imagining myself speaking about anything to an audience scared me from the beginning, but that was the biggest challenge which made me accept the invitation. In this device, I recognize a force inherent in oral discourse by the direct way of communicating with people through the word as a counterpoint to a more abstract nature, such as expressing through dance.
© José Caldeira / TMP
