OPEN CU
Open Cu is a period of artistic residence with a final presentation at the end of the process. It is an invitation to investigate the production of knowledge from the anus, working through procedural tools of contemporary dance and performance art.
People will experience bodily practices aimed at reversing the frontality and dominance of the head in the human body, reflecting on how it affects our relations in the world. There will also be choreographic devices to friction the decentralization of power between bodies and space, and to exercise horizontality in decision making, problematizing the distribution of responsibility during collective movement. Open Cu is an opportunity for people to get to know other perspectives and possibilities of life, facing their own fragility and potentials.
This event is a consequence of the political brazillian piece "Macaquinhos" which presents the anus as the South of the body, it was widespread and fiercely attacked, sparking discussions about censorship, the fate of public funds and the role of art in society.
"The anus is a universal erogenous centre situated beyond the anatomical limits imposed by sexual difference, where the roles and registers appears as universally reversible (who has no anus?). It is a factory for the re-elaboration of the posthuman, countersexual body." - Paul B. Preciado
Photos Nu Abe
Macaquinhos is a Brazilian artistic collective known mainly for its homonymous performance which they investigate the anus as the metaphor of the South in the body. This work was heavily attacked and widely discussed in Brazil, reigniting debates over the role of art in society, censorship and the destination of public funds for culture. In the last presidential elections, most of the candidates cited Macaquinhos to show their versions on these topics.
The collective's research axis are the tensions between body, politics, dance and performance. Since 2011, they have been operating as a space for collaborative and horizontal creation and research. It is formed by a rotation of transdisciplinary artists who have the city of São Paulo, Brazil, as a point of convergence.
Their other two main works are "Open Cu" and "ZOO" co-produced with Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (de). The collective has participated different festivals and art events in many cities in Brazil. In Europe they presented in Projeto Brasil – Tropicalypse Now! and Im*possible Bodies Festival in Frankfurt, Projeto Brasil – Tropicalypse Now! in Hamburg, Wiener Festwochen in Vienna and Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels.
"They conceive a “dance” in which the body is envisaged as a metaphor for the world: divided, organised in a hierarchy, governed by relationships of top-down power. Far from the stereotypes of a liberated and sensual dance, each performance by Macaquinhos is a desire to form a collective, decolonised body. An artistic and political approach that seeks to abolish all forms of hierarchy within a practice that (very) literally confronts taboos. A disorientating work.." - Kunstenfestivaldesarts
Photos Mayra Azzi
