OVID’S METAMORPHOSES
a performance by mala voadora . direction Jorge Andrade . assistant Maria Jorge . soundtrack Rui Lima and Sérgio Martins . light design Rui Monteiro . technical assistance João Fonte . production direction Patrícia Costa . production Mariana Dixe . coproduction Pelouro da Cultura da Câmara Municipal do Porto / Fórum do Futuro . with the support of Instituto Camões, Embassy of Portugal in Czech Republic and Ministry of Culture of Portugal / Directorate-General for the Arts.
Accompanying the launch of the catalog of the official Portuguese representation in the Prague Quadrennial 2019, mala voadora presents the performance The Metamorphoses of Ovid. In The Metamorphoses, the book, Ovid tells the history of the world as a series of transmutations of beings into other beings; in the performance of mala voadora, a group of 50 individuals, each painted in a color, reacts slowly to a soundtrack that evokes the history of the world, and sees their skin being transformed by light. The performance (1) marks the day of Portugal evoking the multitude and (2) is an experience that, by assigning a visual preponderance to the body of performers, transforms them into a scenographic matter – into simultaneously human and scenographic objects – with an ambiguity inspired by Ovid. Then there’s a party!
Image credits: José Caldeira
