Hybrid recital for two landscape-bodies animated by breathing. An agglomerate which destroys and amplifies itself, disaster and anti-disaster in which acceleration, fungus and voice survive. Invisible splendours. Hyper-future and hyper-past. Between dysmorphia, the sun and the flesh.
Vera Mantero studied classical dance until 18 years old and danced in the Gulbenkian Ballet (Lisbon) between 1984 and 1989. She started choreographing in 1987, and since 1991 has been presenting her work all over Europe, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, South Korea and the USA. She teaches regularly composition and improvisation in Portugal and abroad.
Since 2000 she has also been exploring vocal work and co-creating experimental music projects.
She represented Portugal at the 26th Bienal of São Paulo 2004 together with the sculptor Rui Chafes with the co-creation “Eating your heart out”.
Her artistic work has been recognized with institutional awards such as the Prémio Almada (Ministry of Culture – 2002) or the Prémio Gulbenkian Arte for her career as creator and performer (2009).
Jonathan Uliel Saldanha
Sonic and scenic constructor, working within the interception of sound, gesture, voice, stage and film. Operating elements of pre-language, crystallization, percussion, allopoiesis, echo and intra-cranial-dub. Between 2016/18 presented the installation/performance VOCODER & CAMOUFLAGE; the pieces O POÇO, PLETHORA and SØMA; the installation OXIDATION MACHINE; and the exhibition AFASIA TÁTICA and ANÓXIA. Founder of the SOOPA art platform. Co-founder of the SILORUMOR label. He directed the play JUNGLE MACHINE, SANCTA VISCERA TUA and the voice work KHŌROS ANIMA, DEL, SILVO UMBRA and co-created the pieces NYARLATHOTEP and REI TRILOGY. He co-organized the SONORES program for CEC Guimarães 2012. He directs the ensemble HHY & The Macumbas and is the co-founder of the band Fujako. His music is released in the labels Ångström, Tzadik, Rotorelief, SiloRumor, iDEAL and Wordsound. The film/essay MUNDO DE CRISTAL was published by the Serralves Museum.
Creation and Performance Vera Mantero and Jonathan Uliel Saldanha
Set, Costumes and Props Vera Mantero and Jonathan Uliel Saldanha
Ribbon Mask Construction Aldina Jesus
Light Design Leticia Skrycky
Soundtrack Jonathan Uliel Saldanha
Voice Vera Mantero
Texts Paysage avec Argonautes by Heiner Müller, excerpts of Le monstre dans l’art occidental by Gilbert Lascault. © edited by Klincksieck, Paris
Pictures Joos van Craesbeeck and Erbe, Pooley: USDA, ARS, EMU
Production O Rumo do Fumo
Coproduction SACD – Festival d’Avignon and Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Acknowledgement André Guedes, Catarina Miranda, Miguel Pereira and Tiago Barbosa
A first version of Splendour and Dysmorphia was created during the 73rd edition of the Festival d’Avignon, programme Vive le Sujet!, a coproduction SACD-Festival d’Avignon.
O Rumo do Fumo is financed by República Portuguesa – Cultura | Direcção-Geral das Artes and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa
Performance available with soundtrack in English and French.
There are multiple qualities and awe-inspiring doors in this larger piece co-created by two exceptional authors and performers. One of them is the power of the visual landscape that they build, simultaneously deeply human – spongy, with a mutant physiognomy – and the practically empty, apparently cold space, outside the familiar, where there are little more than two benches and the presence of those two beings who have already (or yet?) they don’t look like us, but they are the image of the deformation of the human. This visual and performative quality of the artistic object is already splendid. The disturbance that this object creates in the interpellation of the human’s relationship with the world (natural and constructed) in which he lives, adds another layer. The demolition of the classic myths about how we agreed on the imagination of the future, proposing a break with these sci-fi texts and the like is another layer. This is intensified by, in echo, also interrogating the narratives of the past. It is important to note that the vision that the two had anticipated, as a mediumistic act, the Covid-19 virus. Even before the pandemic, as creators, performers and thinkers, Jonathan and Vera sensed and gave shape to a sick society, walking into the abyss and producing monsters. This is yet another layer. In addition to all this, we can simply contemplate, visually and sonorously, the masterpiece they have built.
Cláudia Galhós
CONTACTS
O Rumo do Fumo / Catia Mateus
catia@orumodofumo.com
Tlm. 91 427 25 93
Website
www.orumodofumo.com
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. 
