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Self(ish) Portrait
“This is my Body”: with this mechanical and haunting affirmation, João Fiadeiro examines and dissects a body which resists his efforts. A microphone stuffed into his mouth captures breaths that escalates into groaning; in contact with the skin, it strikes the body somewhere between pain and pleasure…trembling, beating, epileptic starts, swallowing and facial contortions, all of which are the stigmata of a body inexorably slipping away from itself: too present for the artist to let go of, yet too imperfect to control. A body that is exposed, burdensome, in search of a truth, an identity, an integrity…Alternating uncontrolled movements with almost sacerdotal moments of grace, an uncompromising performance by an atypical artist.
“My solo work has become a special area in which I can undertake a painstaking investigation of my reasons for continuing to dance, of my rapport with objects – always straightforward and easy to read – and my relationship with the audience, that abstract entity with which one maintains the illusion of a dialogue. I say simultaneously what I already know – the reaction (the opposite of action) is always more important – and what I don’t know, via a personal, almost private exhibition of all my imperfections.”
João Fiadeiro
Digital resource – Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse
http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003863
Updating: April 2010
