Chantier poétique [Le groupe]

Recorded at the CND 7 November 2008

“To create a new piece, first you have to simultaneously occupy a space, create a territory and produce the conditions necessary to survive there.”

When the Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças decided to go into the Favela da Maré, a vast area of the city of Rio, little visited by contemporary artists, the company was putting itself into an unstable situation. Their activities over the course of four years were a work of resistance. The community of Nova Holanda, an area of the Favela da Maré inhabited by 20,000 people, is the company’s new home.

“Adapting, moving, developing strategies, demolition, repair, restoration. Consolidating the ground so that artwork can exist. Getting a construction site off the ground.”

Lia Rodrigues

Updating: December 2010