Marlene Monteiro Freitas

This piece derives from someone I drew as a memento of a concert. I called it Guintche and it grew, gained a life of its own, autonomy and rebelled. Guintche is a Cape Verdean Creole word, cape-verdean spoken language; It is the name of a bird, the name of a prostitute, but it may also refer to for an attitude, that of someone who jumps from an event to another, lacking coherence in his/her choices. Through its counter-intuitive structure, Guintche responds as a wax sculpture: it melts, solidifies, breaks, changes form… Yet, it keeps the same nature, that is to say, it remains the same wax. — Marlene Monteiro Freitas


MARLENE MONTEIRO FREITAS (Cape Verde, 1979) studied dance at P.A.R.T.S., in Brussels, and in Lisbon at the Escola Superior de Dança and at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In her native country, Cape Verde, she co-founded the dance group Compass and collaborated with musician Vasco Martins. She worked with Emmanuelle Huynh, Loïc Touzé, Tânia Carvalho and Boris Charmatz, among others. Her creations include: Bacchae - Prelude to a Purge (2017), Jaguar (2015), with Andreas Merk, of ivory and flesh - statues also suffer (2014), Paradise - private collection (2012-13), (M)imosa, co-created with Trajal Harrell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea (2011), Guintche (2010), A Seriedade do Animal (2009-10), Uns e Outros (2008), A Improbabilidade da Certeza (2006), Larvar (2006) and Primeira Impressão (2005). The common denominators of these works are openness, impurity and intensity. In 2017, the Portuguese Authors Society (SPA) awarded Jaguar the prize for the best choreography, and in the same year she was distinguished by the government of Cape Verde for her cultural achievements. In 2018, the Venice Biennale has awarded Marlene with the Silver Lion for Dance. She is the cofounder of P.OR.K, her production company in Lisbon.