Pedro Barateiro will present the performance 'My body, this paper, this fire', within the scope of the first Vilnius Performing Art Biennale, in Lithuania, which runs until the 6th of August.
The biennial, inaugurated on Sunday, is part of the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the Lithuanian capital, is directed by Diana Stomiene and has Neringa Bumbliene as artistic director, taking place in public and semi-public spaces of the Lithuanian capital with a program of 40 performances.
'My body, this paper, this fire' will be presented by Pedro Barateiro at the National Gallery of Art, and is part of a personal account of the student demonstration on November 24, 1994 in front of the Portuguese parliament, in Lisbon, as indicated in the text by presentation by Galeria Filomena Soares, which represents the artist.
"What started as a gathering of 1,000 students, as a result of police brutality, multiplied into large-scale protests involving 20,000 people across the country. The demonstration was the most violent event to date since the fall of the fascist regime in Portugal in 1974", he recalls about the events of the time.
In the performance, Pedro Barateiro starts from an affectionate embrace between two people, and leads the spectators through several dystopian scenarios, outlining "the fragility and power of an individual in the context of larger collective struggles, focusing on the importance of the personal touch and acts simple affection".
The presentation of Pedro Barateiro's creations is part of a curatorial program that also includes works by Egle Budvytyte and Marija Olsauskaite, Adam Christensen, Dorota Gaweda ae Egle Kulbokaite, Liam Gillick and Anton Vidokle, Eye Gymnastics (Viktorija Damerell ae Gaile Griciute) and Kris Lemsalu, Robertas Narkus and Emilija Skarnulyte.
Born in Lisbon in 1979, Pedro Barateiro works in drawing, sculpture, cinema, performance and writing, with a focus on deconstructing the binary narratives of Western culture. He has participated in international biennials, namely in Busan (2006), Berlin and Sydney (2008), then in São Paulo (2010) and Sharjah (2016).
SOURCE: Culturaaominute
