MODERN PROMENADE

A child-boy in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s, choreographer João Saldanha experienced in his childhood the dream of the emerging Brazilian modernist architecture in uniting the indomitable Brazilian Nature into the abstractions of the urban plan. In it, the permeability to the pedestrians, the varied relationship with the solar incidence, the vernacular enjoyment of local materials and resources, architecture as the meeting point of the people, come together in the utopian desire for a new world´s public living space promoted by architects such as Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Lina Bo Bardi. In his afternoons, in the Rio de Janeiro´s neighborhood of Leblon, João ventured with his bicycle through a whole series of buildings built under this influence, at a time much before bars became popular means of protection against the growing urban violence of the later years. Then there were the ramps, the stilts, the sinuous gardens, the free access and suspended plans, its small territories of discovery, where volume, speed, flow, distances and frames were accessed by his young body in education of the senses.

MODERN PROMENADE rescues this rich kinetic experience that informs the spatial poetics of this Rio de Janeiro choreographer, occupied with body weights, the volume of movement, the rooting of the feet and the crossing of space. In this interactive outdoor installation, the pilotis, the cobogós, the ramps, the textures of the modern landscape, the curves of the buildings, the simplicity of the structural features, present in the different layers of the Saldanha´s experience, reappear in the built landscape of a bicycle circuit.

COVERED BY SKY

COVERED BY SKY is a collection of installations and performances centered on the relationship between landscape and art designed by the Brazilian choreographer Gustavo Ciríaco in collaboration with artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Portugal and the UK. The project’s challenge is to invent ways of translating and re-installing landscape experiences through installation and performative devices. The challenge, therefore, is the possibility of providing the general public with a privileged view of the fabrication of space by artists from different fields of art, from music to photography, from dance to visual arts.

Designed for indoor (halls, galleries) and outdoor (courtyards, parks or gardens) public spaces, the collection of interactive installations and performances invite the visitor to poetically re-enact milestones landscapes lived by artists. 

Modern Promenade is the fourth work of Covered by the Sky. Its premiere will be at Teatro Rivoli, under the frame of  Festival Dias de Dança – DDD, in April 2022, in Porto.

ARTISTS

Gustavo Ciríaco (Rio de Janeiro/Br) is a Brazilian  choreographer and time-based artist, whose work moves between the performing arts and the visual arts, performance, architecture, anthropology and landscape art. His works have been seen at festivals such as Crossing the Line / New York; Casa Encendida / Madrid; Serralves Museum / Porto; Mercat de Flors / Barcelona; Paris Quartier d´Été; Ferme de Buisson / Paris; Al-Mammal Foundation / Jerusalem;  Walk & Talk / Ponta Delgada; London Festival; Battersea Arts Centre; Laban Centre/London; Alkantara, TNDM II; Culturgest; Fundação Gulbenkian, Teatro Maria Matos / Lisbon; Tokyo Wonder Site / Tokyo; Taipei Digital Art Center / Taipei; Haus der Kulturen der Welt; Tanz im August / Berlin; Panorama, CCBB, Rio Cena Contemporânea, Atos de Fala / Rio de Janeiro; FADJR / Tehran; SESC São Paulo; Itaú Cultural / São Paulo; Liverpool Biennial / Liverpool; NAVE / Santiago, San Art / Saigon, FIDCU / Montevideo; Salon 44 / Pereira; Fabric / Fall River; Bellas Artes Projects / Manila, among others.

Gonçalo Lopes (Leiria, PT)

Master in Architecture from the University of Coimbra and Escuela Técnica de Arquitectura in Madrid. He worked at renowned architecture studios, including: Kengo Kuma and Associates /Tokyo; Neri&Hu /Shanghai; Gumuchdjian Architects / London. In 2015, he co-created the collective Til, a transdisciplinary research and practical exploration group on the processes of material transformation and reflection on the role of form, space and construction in civic and social interventions. In his personal practice, he develops projects where the fields of architecture, urbanism, art, construction and education intersect.”

GUEST ARTIST

João Saldanha (Rio de Janeiro, Br)

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, João Saldanha founded, in the late 1980s, the Atelier de Coreografia, a company whose history is mixed with the trajectory of contemporary dance from Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. With a work characterized by the fluency of movement, his choreographies resemble an eternal kinetic walk, influenced by the rich spatial composition remnant of the lines and tensions of Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture, in his dialogue with the irregularity and abrupt patterns of his hometown’s geography. He received several awards, including the Stimulus of the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro/1998; the Bolsa Vitae/2004, with Danças Modulares; the Icatu Holding/2005 Award for an artist residency in Paris; the Funarte Klauss Vianna award for the shows Extra Corpo/2006 and Paisagem Concreta/2009; and the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Award/2008, for his body of work. From 1999 to 2003, his company Atelier de Choreografia was supported by the Municipal Department of Culture.

:: NEXT ::

Centro Cultural  de Belém. Lisbon, Portugal. July 2024.

 

:: PREVIUOUSLY ::

Planalto – Festival das Artes. Moimenta da Beira. 4-9, July, 2022.

Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporáneas. Part of a program for children: September  11th, 2022.

Festival Dias de Dança – DDD, Teatro Rivoli. Porto, Portugal. April 20-2, 2022. PREMIÈRE.

Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporáneas. Artistic residency. Ribeira Grande, Açores, Portugal. February 20-25, 2022. Public sharing – Feb 26th, 2022.

Casa de Cultura de Ílhavo and Fábrica das ideias/23 Milhas. Artistic residency. Ílhavo, Portugal. April 6-18, 2021.

ZDB / Novo Negócio. Artistic residency.  Lisbon, Portugal. March 1-20, 2021.

Pico do Refúgio – Programa de Residências Artísticas & Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporáneas. Artistic residency. Ribeira Grande, Azores, Portugal. January 11-17, 2021.

DEVIR/CAPA – Centro de Artes Performativas do Algarve. Artistic residency. Faro, Portugal. November, 16-26, 2020.

Conception and artistic direction Gustavo Ciríaco

Architectonic project and artistic collaboration Gonçalo Lopes

Guest artist João Saldanha

Construction and installation concept Patrick Hubmann and João Gonçalo Lopes

Construction and installation assistants  Kerstin Reyer, Pedro Costa, Sophie Netzer, Ruben Meireles, Milla Hubmann and Emm Hubmann

Administration and financial management Missanga Antunes | Efémera Colecção – Associação Cultural

Production direction Sinara Suzin

Drawings João Gonçalo Lopes

Photos João Peixoto

Co-production Fundição Progresso (Rio de Janeiro), Festival DDD / Teatro Rivoli

Institutional support THIRD –  Dance and Theatre Academy – Amsterdam University of the Arts

Artistic Residencies DEVIR – Centro de Artes Performativas do Algarve (Faro/Pt), Pico do refúgio (Rabo de Peixe/Pt), Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporâneas (Ribeira Grande/Pt), 23 Milhas/Fábrica de Ideias (Gafanha de Nazaré/Pt) and Espaço Novo Negócio/ZDB (Lisboa/Pt)

Funding República Portuguesa – Cultura | DgARTES – Direção-Geral das Artes

 

 

Photos João Peixoto