The Gulbenkian and dance in Portugal
24 Jun – 04 Jul 2021
Throughout two long weekends, dance returns to the auditoriums of the Foundation with the performance of two dozen works created over recent years with support from the Gulbenkian and with some making their very first appearance in Portugal.
Since the disbanding of the Gulbenkian Ballet in 2005, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has focused its involvement in dance on awarding grants — for study, creation and internationalization — that fund independent contemporary dance projects from artists mainly at the start of their careers. In response to the invitation to create a programme that brings together a series of works funded by the Foundation, this show presents two dozen performances selected from more than a hundred which were awarded grants under the Gulbenkian Culture Programme between 2011 and 2017. The intensity of each of these shows and the ephemeral nature of dance itself explains why most have not been staged in several years. Some have never been performed in Lisbon or even in Portugal. As such, their re-performance contributes not only to a rethinking of the idea of the repertoire, but also to a renewed look at the shows from the perspective of the present.
At stake in these works is a multiplicity of inquiries into the questioning of the kinetic state of the body, the theatricality of inanimate and inorganic beings, the use of words as a choreography of meaning and sensation, or the performativity of gender as something complex and non-linear. These concerns attest to the versatile character of dance today in terms of an expanded practice, often detached from the body. Dance is in itself a mode of action that has no category, in which all disciplines intersect and all formats coexist, calling the systems of presentation and representation into question: whether a performance, an exhibition, a guided tour, a conference, an interview, a concert, or a recital. Creating dance nowadays does not simply mean moving through space and time, but composing situations, taking on visions and perspectives from the possibilities of each world. Together, the artists that form this show construct a partial portrait of a generation marked by a context of production dominated by small-scale projects, with small crews comprising temporary workers, a result of an increasingly liberal labour market. These artists reflect the diversity of Portugal’s emerging dance scene over this past decade.
The show was initially planned for 2018 and was designed to occupy most of the Foundation’s spaces, but it is now confined to more formal presentation spaces as a result of the pandemic. Its two main purposes, however, remain the same. These are, on the one hand, revitalising the contemporary dance circuit during the current pandemic by revisiting the questioning of the body and its forms of visibility in the public space as fundamental elements in a society that is deprived of a social body; on the other hand, reinforcing the Foundation’s relationship with contemporary dance in the future.
João dos Santos Martins
Curator
24—27 junho
24 junho — quinta-feira
20h — Luís Guerra, Trovoada (2014), 45’’ — Grande Auditório
20h45 — Aurora Pinho, Velvet N’Goldmine (2016), 40’’ — Grande Auditório
25 junho — sexta-feira
19h — Joana von Mayer Trindade, Nameless Natures (2015), 30” — Sala 1
20h — Joana Castro, Perto…Tanto Quanto Possível (2014), 40” — Foyer VIP
21h — Matthieu Ehrlacher, Cocoon (2017), 50” — Auditório 2
26 junho — sábado
11—17h — Luís Miguel Félix & Ben Evans, O Museu Invisível (2013) — Museu Gulbenkian
15h — Andresa Soares, Vera Mantero e João Ferro Martins —conversa/demonstração — I’d rather not, 60” — Auditório 3
16h30 — Rita Natálio & Joana Levi, “Museu Encantador (2014, 2021)”, 60” — Sala 2
18h — Joana von Mayer Trindade, Nameless Natures (2015), 30’’ — Sala 1
19h — Flora Détraz, Gesächt + Tutuguri (2016), 45” — Auditório 3
20h — Joana Castro, Perto…Tanto Quanto Possível (2014), 40’’ — Foyer VIP
27 junho — domingo
11—17h — Luís Miguel Félix & Ben Evans, O Museu Invisível (2013) — Museu Gulbenkian
15h — David Marques, Kin (2014), 40” — Grande Auditório
16h — Rita Natálio & Joana Levi, “Museu Encantador (2014, 2021)”, 60’’ — Sala 2
17h30 — Flora Détraz, Gesächt + Tutuguri (2016), 45” — Auditório 3
18h30 — Mariana Tengner Barros & Mark Tompkins, A Power Ballad (2013), 70” — Auditório 2
20h — Catarina Miranda, Reiposto Reimorto (2015, 2021), 45” — Grande Auditório
1—4 julho
1 julho — quinta-feira
20h — Maria Ramos, Something Still Uncaptured (2013), 40” — Grande Auditório
21h30 — Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, Um gesto que não passa de uma ameaça (2011), 40” — Grande Auditório
2 julho — sexta-feira
19h — Miguel Bonneville, MB#8 (2011), 40” — Auditório 3
20h — Sónia Baptista, In the fall the Fox, e na queda raposar (2014), 60” — Auditório 2
3 julho — sábado
11—17h — Luís Miguel Félix & Ben Evans, O Museu Invisível (2013)— Museu Gulbenkian
15h30 — Vitalina Sousa, Do we dream every night? (2015), 15” — Sala 1
16h — Gustavo Ciríaco & António Pedro Lopes, Em Deriva (2010), 60” — Sala 2
17h30 — Vitalina Sousa, Do we dream every night? (2015), 15” — Sala 1
18h — Miguel Bonneville, MB#8 (2011), 40” — Auditório 3
19h — Dinis Machado, Cyborg Sunday (2014), 50’’ — Foyer VIP
4 julho — domingo
11—17h — Luís Miguel Félix & Ben Evans, O Museu Invisível (2013) — Museu Gulbenkian
15h30 — Vitalina Sousa, Do we dream every night? (2015), 15” — Sala 1
16h — Gustavo Ciríaco & António Pedro Lopes, Em Deriva (2010), 60” — Sala 2
17h30 — Vitalina Sousa, Do we dream every night? (2015), 15” — Sala 1
18h — Sónia Baptista, Assentar sobre a subida das águas (2016), 75” — Auditório 2
19h30 — Dinis Machado, Cyborg Sunday (2014), 50” — Foyer VIP
21h — Filipe Pereira & Teresa Silva, O que fica do que passa (2013), 35” — Grande Auditório
29 de junho — 4 de julho: Exposição de fotografias Do we dream every night? (2015) de Vitalina Sousa, Catarina Botelho, Pedro Tropa e Teresa Santos — Hall da Zona de Congressos