Meant to be a speculative laboratory, SIRI explores several binomials – material and immaterial, stability and speed, physical and psychological, challenge and fear, human and technological – in a choreographic approach between what is real and what haunts us.
The stage appears as an archaeological field that guards different techniques, usages and ways of expressing the bodies, the objects and the movements produced amongst them. In it, the choreography is presented as an investigation about memory, at the same time archaeological and alive – of the human body and its representations through technology. SIRI extends the collaboration between the choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira and the filmmaker Jorge Jácome, after working together in the show ÍRIS, expressed as a look on temporality, from the image, visual construction and speech about memory.
Marco da Silva Ferreira has an academic degree in physical therapy but has been a dance performer
since 2008. He has worked with choreographers like André Mesquita, Hofesh Shechter, Sylvia Rijmer, Tiago Guedes, Victor Hugo Pontes, Paulo Ribeiro, among others. He began in 2012 with Nevoeiro 21 as a choreographer and has, since then, presented several shows and his show Hu(r)mano (2015) received the award Jovem Criador Português 2015. In 2017, he premiered his show Brother within the 85 th Anniversary of the Rivoli Municipal Theatre. He was an associated artist of Porto’s Municipal Theatre for the seasons 17/18 and 18/19. In 2019, his show Bisonte was premiered. He’s currently an Associated Artist of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen in Normandie.
Jorge Jácome is a filmmaker, graduated in 2010 by the Lisbon Superior Theatre and Film School, graduated in 2016 by the Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in Tourcoing, France. His work investigates the relationships between utopia, melancholy, disappearance and desire. His films were screened in several international festivals (such as Berlinale and TIFF – Toronto) and in exhibiting contexts at Palais de Tokyo, La Maison Européene de la Photographie, MoMa, among others. He won several awards with his short films Past Perfect (2019), Flores (2017) and Fiesta Forever (2016). He frequently collaborates with projects in the context of performative arts.
Artistic Direction Jorge Jácome, Marco da Silva Ferreira
Performers Alina Folini, Éric Santos, Marco da Silva Ferreira, Mélanie Ferreira
Lighting design Rui Monteiro
Robotics Teresa Antunes
Sound design Rui Lima, Sérgio Martins
Costumes Ricardo Andrez
Executive Production Joana Costa Santos
Assistent producer Mafalda Bastos
Tour Managment Art Happens
Coproduction Pensamento Avulso Associação Artes Performativas, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen em Normandie, POLE-SUD – Centre de Développement Chorégraphique National de Strasbourg, Théâtre de la Ville Paris
Coproducion residency O Espaço do Tempo
Residencies Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen em Normandie, Alkantara, Teatro Municipal do Porto
Support Direção Geral das Artes
Fondation d’entreprise Hermès no âmbito de / within the framework of the New Settings Program
Marco da Silva Ferreira is supported by
Associate Artisit Residency – centre chorégraphique national de Caen, Normandie – director Alban Richard
O Espaço do Tempo
A few years ago, Marco da Silva Ferreira and Jorge Jácome developed a first co-creation from the Conquering the studio project, a proposal by Cristina Planas Leitão for Companhia Instável. Iris was the result premiered on “Palcos Instáveis”.
Iris is both a punch to the brain and a punch to the stomach! In other words, it is a piece that invokes in equal doses the kinesthetic sense and the intelligence and curiosity of the viewer. A growing number of new intellectual and sensory spaces.
Siri inverts the title of Iris into an anagram that gives it even more meaning as we decode a dancing matter that establishes a utopia between the body – matter and the equipment – matter.
An interesting concept that constantly creates the illusion and the doubt about the movement. The question of whether the movement will be of the body / matter or of the camera that registers and projects it, creating an illusion between what is real and what will be a projection or repetition of the real, be it material, human or immaterial.
With an equal dose of importance, without any attribution of protagonism, the bodies of the performers move as materials, equipment or screens, the human is the material and the material is insubstantial.
Ana Figueira
Mickael de Oliveira was born in France, in 1984, and has lived in Portugal since 1999. In 2013, he got his Ph.D. in contemporary Portuguese and European dramaturgy from the School of Humanities – University of Lisbon, where he is post-doctoral fellow researching the presence of literature in contemporary theatre and dance. In 2008, Mickael founded Colectivo 84, the theatre company for which he develops playwriting and directing projects. His work O que é teu entregou aos mortais was distinguished with the Maria Matos New Playwriting Award (Maria Matos Municipal Theatre, 2007), and Clytemnestra received an Honorable Mention – António José da Silva Prize (D. Maria II National Theatre, Lisbon / FUNARTE, Brazil, 2012). Some of his most recent productions include Oslo–Fuck Them All and Everything Will Be Wonderful (co-created with Nuno M Cardoso, Gil Vicente Academic Theatre, São Luiz Municipal Theatre), The Constitution (2016, Dona Maria National Theatre), and the diptych Socrates Must Die (Socrates’ Death / The Life of John Smith, 2017/2018, Vila Flor Cultural Centre, São Luiz Municipal Theatre, Viriato Theatre, Gil Vicente Academic Theatre. Mickael has served as the artistic director of END – New Dramaturgy Encounters, a project that aims to foster new Portuguese and international playwriting (1st edition at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre, Lisbon, Nov. 2010; 2nd and 3rd editions at the Gil Vicente Academic Theatre, March, Coimbra, 2015/2019). He was Assistant Professor of Arts Administration and Artistic Studies at the School of Education and Humanities (Leiria), guest Lecturer at the School of Theatre and Film Studies (Lisbon), and guest Assistant Professor at the School of Humanities – University of Coimbra. From September 2011 to August 2015, Mickael was Assistant Artistic Director of the Gil Vicente Academic Theatre (Coimbra).
Patrícia Portela is a writer and performance maker born in 1974, living between Belgium and Portugal. She has a BA in set and costume design by the high school of theatre and cinema of Lisbon, a Masters of Arts in scenography and dramaturgy of space from the University of Utrecht and Saint Martins college of art in Antwerp, a post-graduation in theatricality and performativity from APT in Antwerp, a film stage at the European film school in Ebeltoft, Denmark, and a Masters in Philosophy of the University of Leuven, Belgium. Since 2003 she has worked on her own performances and installations in collaboration with international artists. She has achieved national and international recognition for her unusual work and is considered one of the most daring artists and innovative writers of her generation. She won the Revelation Prize in 1994 for her creative work in performance and cinema, the Prize Teatro na Década for T5 in 1999, the Gulbenkian Foundation Prize Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão for the performance Flatland I in 2004 and was one of the 5 finalists of the Sonae Media Art Prize 2015 with her installation Parasomnia, amongst other prizes. She has been invited to participate in the prestigious International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa in 2013 and to be the first Outreach Fellow. She was the first literary resident in Berlin in 2016, sponsored by the Portuguese Embassy in Germany/Instituto Camões. She lectures “dramaturgy and space” and “image” regularly at Universities and cultural centers in Portugal (such as University of Minho or University of Lisbon) and abroad (University of Antwerp, Escola de Escrita in Curitiba, etc). She is the author of several novels, short stories and performances, such as Dias úteis (2016, considered one of the books of the year by several reviewers) or Banquet (finalist at the Novel Prize of APE 2012). She is a chronicle writer for the prestigious Jornal de Letras since 2017 and for the National Radio Antena 1.
Rui Horta was one of the most influencial choreographers of his generation, his work being presented all over the world such as the Theatre de la Ville, that co-produced it for over a decade. He directed S.O.A.P. at the Mousonturm, and created for many companies such as NDT, Cullberg, Geneva, Gotemburg, etc. 
