Artistic Residency
OLHO NO OLHO : WHO CAN BE VISIBLE IN SÃO PAULO TODAY?
WITH QUARANTINE 
(United Kingdom)
Faced with the social complexity of a 20 million people megalopolis such as São Paulo, the experienced and renowned artists of British collective Quarantine will be in artistic residency at MITsp 2020, sharing their practices with local artists. The residency will result in a performative installation attended by non-artists – regular people with no previous experience with the performing arts and with quite different, contradictory and even divergent experiences and ideologies. Richard Gregory and Renny O’Shea, co-founders and artistic directors of Quarantine, supported by partners Sarah Hunter and Kate Daley, sought out Brazilian artists from many areas (performing, visual and fine arts, dance, cinema, music, etc.) to jointly develop strategies for research, dialogue and engagement with the city and its population. In the residency’s first stage, Quarantine members shared their creative techniques and some of the devices they use for their public events. Then, the participants seek to establish a close and direct relationship with non-artists – individuals normally distant from the artistic scene and voiceless in society, especially those whose political positions and ideas tend to be rejected in the progressive milieu. Activity participants are invited to identify, find and engage non-artists with whom they will work and who will later be part of a performing installation. By bringing together people who would not normally meet, Olho no Olho residency: Who Can Be Visible in São Paulo Today? will create the means for dialogue and engagement with dissident voices – approaching themselves to what Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe calls “agonistic pluralism”. To this end, it will develop a methodology for dissent which asserts the positive aspects of certain forms of political conflict. Thus, the residency intends to establish a space in which performers, spectators and other attendees can confront these questions: How do we act? (theatre). How can we act? (politics). How should we act? (ethics). Who is able to perform? (representation). Active for 21 years in the UK, Quarantine’s creations deal with the daily lives of regular people; the collective works so this people can present their own narratives and experiences. On stage, they are not someone else’s ideas performers, but individuals with their own history. Through this artistic and creative method, the British collective seeks to reveal non-hegemonic personal stories and memories and to give space to unofficial and divergent voices, which are generally not heard.
WHEN
- February 13th to March 8th, Tuesday to Saturday, from 2pm to 7pm. [Carnival break: February 22nd to 25th].
- March 7th and 8th presentation of the performative installation from 2pm at Espaço expositivo Piso Caio Graco.