Marlene Monteiro Freitas
D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi
D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi, Marlene Monteiro Freitas © Pierre Planchenault ©
D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi, Marlene Monteiro Freitas © Pierre Planchenault ©
D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi, Marlene Monteiro Freitas © Pierre Planchenault ©
Choreography, Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Featuring Andreas Merk, Betty Tchomanga, Henri “Cookie” Lesguillier, Lander Patrick, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Miguel Filipe, Tomás Moital
Lights and space, Yannick Fouassier
Live music, Cookie (percussions)
Editing and sound, Tiago Cerqueira
Research, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, João Francisco Figueira
Produced by P.OR.K (Soraia Gonçalves, Joana Costa Santos - Lisbonne)
Casting Key Performance (Stockholm)
Co-produced by O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo); Alkantara Festival (Lisbon); Teatro Maria Matos (Lisbon); Bomba Suicida (Lisbon, with support from DGArtes,
Portugal); Centre Chorégraphique National de Rillieux-la-Pape, directed by
Yuval Pick (Rillieux-la-Pape); Musée de la danse – Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne (Rennes); Centre Pompidou (Paris); Festival Montpellier
Danse 2014 (Montpellier); Arcadi (Paris); Le CDC – Centre de Développement
Chorégraphique de Toulouse/Midi-Pyrénées (Toulouse); TnBA – Théâtre national de Bordeaux en Aquitaine (Bordeaux); Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels); WP Zimmer
(Antwerp); NXTSTP-The Culture Programme of the European Union
With support from ACCCA – Companhia Clara Andermatt (Lisbon)
Special thanks to Staresgrime (Amadora), Dr. Ephraim Nold
Co-directed by Théâtre Public de Montreuil, centre dramatique national; Festival d’Automne à Paris
This event is part of the 2022 France-Portugal Season
With support of LVMH, member of the Sponsors Committee of the 2022 France-Portugal Season
D’ivoire et chair – les statues souffrent aussi, a concentration of Marlene Monteiro Freitas’s work with the body, serves as a gender study of visually stunning proportions. In it, the statue-like soloists become the guardians of an extraordinary kingdom. A true work of art.
D’ivoire et chair, a story within a story, comprised of transgressions, deaths and limitless desire, immediately places itself under the aegis of Ovid and his Metamorphoses. In the eyes of Marlene Monteiro Freitas, similar to these body-statues, anything and everything is a source of resurrection. With silent screams coming from their wide-open mouths, contorted faces, and eyes rolled upwards, the performers embark upon a form of ritual. The choreographer draws upon her interest in focal points, dwindling and shrinking all the while, thereby amplifying the performer’s gestures.
“Sometimes it might take a fully exposed body or a gaping wound in order to bring out a minute detail “. Enveloped by different-sounding notes, such as Feelings, a hit song played to over-the-top effect, or Arcade Fire – and the aptly penned My body is a cage –, these “petrified“ bodies take the stage by storm, at the risk of turning it upside-down. “The stage is a place for putting frontiers in danger“, as Marlene Monteiro Freitas likes to remind us. Which is precisely what D’ivoire et chair does.