Cecilia Bengolea/François Chaignaud/Marlene Monteiro Freitas/Trajal Harrell
(F/AR/F/Portugal/Kap Verde/USA)
(M)IMOSA – Twenty Looks Or Paris Is Burning At The Judson Church [M]
Mousonturm Saal
Performance/Dance/Musical
- 28.11.2012, 20.00 Uhr
- 29.11.2012, 8 p.m.
(M)IMOSA, a choreographic collaboration between Cecilia Bengolea, Francois Chaignaud, Marlene Freitas, and Trajal Harrell, is the title given to the Medium version of Harrell’s series in five sizes, (XS) – (XL), entitled Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church.
What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ball scene had come down to Judson Church in Greenwich Village to perform alongside the early postmoderns? The answer to this question is embodied by the fictional persona Mimosa Ferrera – Mimosa the beautiful, who bathes in milk, is kissed by muses, created out of stories, costumes, gestures, song and dance. Identity only interests her as a possibility to spread lies. For her, trash is something very sublime and passion far more than sensuality and pain. Two male and two female dancers traverse the precarious terrain between seriousness and persiflage, between man and woman, pop and avant-garde, pornography and religion, voguing and ballet, classicism and postmodernism: a never-ending party of opposites, coming ever closer together as poles along the same axis.
By and with Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Trajal Harrell, Marlene Monteiro Freitas * Production: Vlovajob Pru * Co-produced by: Le Quartz – Scène nationale de Brest, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Centre de Développement Choréographique – Toulouse, La Ménagerie de Verre, The Kitchen, Bomba Suicida and FUSED – French US Exchange in Dance * Supported by: Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
In English.
Biography
Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Born in Cape Verde, Marlene Monteiro Freitas is a dancer and choreographer. She studied dance in Brussels and Lisbon, followed by collaborations with Emmanuelle Huynh, Loïc Touzé, Tânia Carvalho, Boris Charmatz, among others. After establishing her first company Compass in Cape Verde, she now works with P.OR.K – co-founded by her – in Lisbon and collaborates with O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo). Her oeuvre is characterised by unity of openness, heterogeneousness and intensity and includes such productions as Primeira Impressão (2005), A Improbabilidade da Certeza and Larvar (2006), Uns e Outros (2008), A Seriedade do Animal (2009), a solo Guintche (2010), (M)imosa (2011, in collaboration with Trajal Harell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea), Paraíso, colecção privada (2012), and de marfim e carne – as estátuas também sofrem (2014), Jaguar (with the collaboration of Andreas Merk), Bacantes – Prelúdio para uma Purga (2017). In 2017, she was distinguished by the government of Cape Verde for her cultural achievement, also in the same year, Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores awards Jaguar the distinction of Best Choreography of the Year. In 2018, she created Canine Jaunâtre 3 for Batsheva Dance Company and was awarded the Silver Lion award for dance at the Venice Biennale. Since 2020 Marlene is also a co-curator of the project (un)common ground, a project that investigates the artistic and territorial inscription of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2020 she also receives the award for Best International Performance by Critica d’Arts Escéniques of Barcelona, for her work Bacantes. In August 2020, MAL – Embriaguez Divina premiered in Kampnagel, Hamburg and in July 2021, her newest creation Pierrot Lunaire with Ingo Metzmacher was presented at the WienerFestwochen. Most recently Marlene was awarded the Chanel Next Prize (2021), which had David Adjaye, Tilda Swinton and Cao Fei as part of the jury. In 2021 she was also awarded the Evens Arts Prize.