FICTIONAL AUDIOTOUR (2005 – 2018) O Homen do Chapeu (The man with the hat) (Theatre Festival “XVIII Festival de Inverno”, SESC Santo André / Paranapiacaba, SP (Brazil). 2018) Ágata takes care of Nenê in a nursing home in São Paulo. The old lady tells her an intriguing story about her old life in Paranapiacaba and Ágata decides to travel to this town to learn more. She goes looking for traces of Nenê, her aunt Emilia and an enigmatic man with a hat. Soon Agata is faced with many unanswered questions: What happened to Aunt Emilia at that time, what made her leave the town? Who is this man with the hat? And why is Nenê so interested in him? What begins as a walk through Nenê’s hometown, is transformed, step by step, into a detective story in which the history of the place and its characters are confused between the haze and the words of Agatha. CAST: Concept, dramaturgy and direction: Christina Ruf and Ariel Dávila (BiNeural-MonoKultur) Original music and sound design: Guillermo Ceballos Ágata’s Voice: Ana Luiza Leão Investigation: Ariel Dávila, Christina Ruf, Gabriela Gianetti Historical assessment: Eduardo Pin Translation into Portuguese: Alessandro Atanes Poems cited: Parts of “Vila Mágica” and “Moça formosa da estação” by Francisca de Araújo Graphic design of the club’s member card: Natalia Rojo Local production: Gabriela Gianetti General production: Felipe Gonzalez / Difusa Fronte(i)ra Thanks to: Zélia Paralego, Pedro de Souza Maia and Priscila Paralego – ‘Os Memorialistas’, Tatiana Machado, Vilma Rosa, Alexandre and Igor Almeida Oshiro, Maria Aparecida Carillo (Cida), Geyson Ric, Marcia Salvador Tersetti, Leandro Machado, Enrique Portela Silva Co-production: BiNeural-MonoKultur, Difusa Fronte(i)ra Realization: SESC Santo André RESEARCH: Paranapiacaba has a unique history that is closely linked to the railroad. It is a town that was established by English engineers in the mid-nineteenth century in the coastal mountains of the state of São Paulo. The aim was to develop and build a funicular system to transport merchandise and passengers, connecting the port of Santos with the interior of São Paulo state. We could say that Paranapiacaba has a special character, with its location in the mountains in the middle of the Atlantic Forest, its English architectural style (including a clock that imitates London’s Big Ben) and the dense fog that rises almost daily from the Atlantic Ocean and completely engulfs the entire town. We conducted the historical research under the guidance of Eduardo Pin and became familiar with the idiosyncrasy of this small city and the social organization that was established in the railway era: There was a clear hierarchy according to the workers’ ranks, and the houses and buildings were also distributed according to that criterion. We were struck by the fact that in the history of this town, there is virtually no mention of women. They appeared in photographic records, and perhaps we know who they married (but only those belonging to the more prominent families), but we know almost nothing about these women. At ‘Clube União Lyra Serrano’ we found one of those photos featuring women, and used it as a starting point to imagine what their lives were like. We used some stories about social life from that time and developed the script on that basis. Thanks to its fog, its architecture and in part due to the numerous legends and stories from this place, the town inspired us to write a Fictional Audiotour in the form of a detective mystery (with a feminist touch). This is the origin of our story, which tells of several generations of women and a murder related to the mysterious ‘man with the hat’.
MANO ÚNICA (ONE-WAY STREET) (2006) Theatrical intervention in the Jesuit Crypt of Cordoba, which was rediscovered in 1989. During this intervention, the audience descends into the underworld of Cordoba, passing through the crypt’s ancient corridors, crossing paths with personalities from the city’s own history, as well as mythological figures. The spectators are guided by Tiresias through this urban Hades and pass through different dreamlike situations. The work was an attempt to recover the memory that lies hidden in the crypt. Work presented within the context of the inauguration ceremonies of ‘Córdoba Capital Americana de la Cultura 2006’ (Cordoba – American capital of culture 2006). Córdoba, Argentina. CAST: Acting: Valeria Urigu, Gabriela Aguirre, Marcelo Arbach, Leopoldo Cáceres, José “Pepe” Fernández Original Music: Guillermo Ceballos Video: Hernán Rossi Lights: Gonzalo Marull Concept, Dramaturgy and Direction: BiNeural-MonoKultur (Christina Ruf + Ariel Dávila) DURATION: approx. 50 min.
VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES – Laboratorio para teatro virtual (VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES – laboratory for virtual theatre) (2008 – 2011) The Virtual Performances Project consists of a series of virtual-theatrical interventions via Internet videoconferencing. It is conceived as a work-in-progress, open for new elements, themes and participants, in order to be able to react flexibly to incidents and current events. It consists of a series of different set-ups in different locations and interrelated in a network and with various topics using documentary theatre procedures with fictional elements. It is precisely for these features that it has the subtitle “virtual laboratory for theatre.” Virtual Performances is a mix of disciplines, it contains elements of theatre, visual arts and public intervention. It experiments with new technologies as artistic tools, and wants to explore the new possibilities of communication by means of New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTICs) and reflect on their consequences. The project is situated along the boundary between fiction and non-fiction, close to the documentary theatre, and is interested in integrating science into arts and arts into science. The original idea was conceived by Meret Kiderlen (Germany), Carolina Defossé (Argentina) and BiNeural-MonoKultur (Christina Ruf + Ariel Dávila / Germany, Argentina). Several artists from different countries like Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Spain were involved in its development. Since the end of 2008 we started to work around the idea of using the new technologies of information and communication such as for example Skype (videoconference via internet) as a medium for scenic action. We ask ourselves: How could we interact, from the point of view of scenic-performative arts, through this medium of communication? As a result of the meetings and exchanges between our continents and our research on the artistic possibilities it offers we have produced the following works so far: – “Skype me up to the Stars!” (2009) – homo-migrator.www (2011) – Conectados (2011) The following other smaller and experimental productions were also made: – Lpz.-BsAs 15min (as part of the Argentine Film Festival in Leipzig, 2009) – Open rehearsals of the process of homo-migrator.www at the end of the artist residency Nau Côclea, Catalonia (Spain) (2010) and as part of the performance event Epipiderme in Lisbon (Portugal) (2010). Open rehearsals of homo-migrator.www In terms of topic we were planning that this new version of the piece of documentary theatre with fictional elements would revolve around the issue of migration in general and in relation to the WorldWideWeb (www): Migration of people, but also migration of data, goods, information. How many times do we have to show our documents to a police authority? Will an avatar or virtual profile on the network need an identity document in the future? What is a foreigner, what does it mean to be in another place in the age of cyberspace? These were the main issues we wanted to address during the research process of creating the new Virtual Performances project that ultimately resulted in the work homo-migrator.www presented at the International Theatre Festival MERCOSUR, Cordoba (Argentina), 2011. CAST – Open rehearsal of homo-migrator.www in Epipiderme – encontros à volta da performance, Lisbon (Portugal), 2010. Conception: Meret Kiderlen (Leipzig, Germany) and BiNeural-MonoKultur (Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf) Direction: BiNeural-MonoKultur With: Ieltxu Ortueta Martínez (Sao Paulo, Brasil) on the virtual stage and Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf on the real stage. CAST – Open rehearsal of homo-migrator.www in the residency Nau Côclea, Catalunya (Spain), 2010. Conception and direction: Meret Kiderlen (Leipzig, Germany) and BiNeural-MonoKultur (Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf) With: Ieltxu Ortueta Martínez (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Meret Kiderlen (Frankfurt, Germany) on the virtual stage + Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf on the real stage. “Lpz.-BsAs 15min.” First public experiment conducted in the third Argentine Film Festival in Leipzig (Germany). 2009. We approach the medium from the question of whether we are dealing with art that is more cinematic or theatrical. Because the receptive situation resembled a film presentation: A group of spectators watching a screen. We started a game of putting together a live action mini-movie: You see a scene with girl in her apartment, waiting for her boyfriend. When he arrives, they have a fight, the boyfriend leaves, and she is left alone again. We use the defects that occur with a medium such as videoconferencing via the Internet (connection failure, sound problems, or other technical failures); these supposed (or real) technical failures become an excuse for the actress to make personal explanations, read a letter or put makeup on in front of the camera for a few minutes before restarting the “scene”, or “take”. This way we also showed the theatrical side: everything the audience sees happened live and without the possibility of editing and invisible repetition. In the repetition the construction can be seen and the fictionalization of the interruptions enables contact with the public and the presentation of this new artistic medium/device. CAST “Lpz.-BsAs 15min.” Idea: BiNeural-MonoKultur, Carolina Defossé, Meret Kiderlen Concept and development: Carolina Defossé, Meret Kiderlen Direction: Meret Kiderlen Acting: Carolina Defossé Video: Ivo Aichenbaum
Quem não luta tá morto! (Whoever doesn’t fight is already dead!) (X-Apartments) (2009) “Quem não luta tá morto!” is a scenic-documentary installation that was performed as part of the X-APARTMENTS project, which tells of the process of eviction of the FLM (Frente de Luta pela Moradia – Front of the Struggle for Housing) / MSTC (Movimento dos Sem Teto do Centro – Central Homeless Movement) movement of an occupied building in downtown São Paulo (Brazil). For ten days BiNeural-MonoKultur accompanied a group of about 200 people who were camping next to the vacant building until they were given a temporary warehouse. The result was a video documentary and a photo exhibition where FLM members themselves told of their experiences during that period of ten days living on the streets, resisting the police, asking the national secretary of human rights for dignified housing. X-APARTMENTS is a project that transforms 22 departments of the city of São Paulo (Brazil) into areas of artistic intervention, mixing real life and fiction, opening the city’s windows and doors from new angles, revealing its details. Each residence receives 2 viewers / visitors every 10 minutes to participate in an artistic action. Conceived in 2002 by Matthias Lilienthal (Hebbel Theatre, Berlin), the project was set up in the cities of Berlin, Istanbul, Caracas among others. In São Paulo, X-APARTMENTS was realised by the SESC SP cultural centre and the Goethe Institute of São Paulo in collaboration with the Hebbel am Ufer theatre in Berlin. Quem não luta tá morto! was presented during all of the days of X-MORADIAS in the city of São Paulo (Brazil) in June of 2009. CAST: Concept, dramaturgy, documentation and realisation: Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf (BiNeural-MonoKultur) Production assistant: Tieza Tissi In collaboration with the movement FLM / MSTC.
Skype me up to the stars! (Virtual Performances – laboratory for virtual theatre) (2009) “Skype me up to the stars!” is the second work from the “Virtual Performances” laboratory. It consisted in a Skype transmission from Córdoba and Buenos Aires to Leipzig, for the commemoration of the International Year of Astronomy. The transmission from Córdoba was held at the Astronomical Observatory Museum of the National University, with participation of an actor who played astronomer. On the other side an actress-astrologer participated from a café in Buenos Aires. At the location of the audience, Leipzig, the piece generally pretended to be a lecture on the subject of Astronomy, which over time became increasingly fictional. During the first part of the set there was a small exhibition with related objects, and two “experts” were invited from Argentina to discuss the topic, with whom viewers could contact individually via Skype. Later on, the event was shown on a large screen, keeping its documentary-scientific character, always in a spirit of public interaction and maintaining a relationship with the place of transmission. What started as a conference gradually took on fictional elements, until ending in a nearly absurd scene of an Ed Wood style alien invasion of the Cordoba Observatory. “Skype me up to the stars!” was debuted in June 2009 at the LOFFT theatre festival in Leipzig. CAST: Concept and direction: Meret Kiderlen (Leipzig, Germany) + BiNeural-MonoKultur (Ariel Dávila + Christina Ruf) With: BUENOS AIRES: ASTROLOGER Carolina Defossé VIDEO Ivo Aichenbaum ASTROLOGICAL CONSULTING Willy Gugliermo CÓRDOBA: ASTRONOMER Hernán Rossi Fraire MUSIC Guillermo Ceballos ASTRONOMICAL CONSULTING Guillermo Goldes LEIPZIG: ASISSTANT DIRECTOR Judith Schrodtkötter CONSULTING María Cabrera Rivero ASISSTANT PRODUCER Claudia Gartner, Franziska Janetzky RECEPTION Annemarie Saß, Enrico Michelini, María Cabrera Rivero VIDEO TECHNIQUE Matthias Gruner PHOTOGRAPHY Paúl Escobar NETWORK TECHNOLOGY Alexander Gross Thanks to observatory Sternwarte Eilenburg + astronomical museum “D. F. Sarmiento – Dr. B. A. Gould” of Cordoba National University Astronomical Observatory. DURATION: approx. 60 min.
PROYECTO CONFESIONARIOS – Construyendo un mapa emocional de la ciudad (PROJECT CONFESSIONALS – creating an emotional map of the city) (2008 – 2012) The confessional, normally understood as a reserved and private place, as a place for redemption and intimacy, here becomes an exposed one, visible to everyone. The public sphere is confronted with the intimacy, the hidden things come into sight. Is private confession possible in a public space? A confessional, put in public spaces, an object that contrasts with reality, taken out of its original context. A booth where you listen to “urban confessions,” and become absorbed by the details of daily life. A confessional is placed in determined zones of the city where a spectator sits down, but rather than making a confession, he’s here to listen to “urban confessions” in order to find the emotional tracks left by the pedestrians in their city. PROJECT CONFESSIONALS seeks to find and trace the emotional tracks of the residents of a city, covering the urban landscape with a web of intimate memories and personal confessions, creating an alternative map – a form of emotional cartography. Through interviews and, to the extent possible, local calls for entries, “urban confessions” are compiled from city/neighbourhood residents. These concern never-told events that occurred in the determined spaces of the city, for example in a specific quarter of the city. These “confessions” don’t necessarily concern sin or immorality, but rather private, intimate occurrences that are linked to specific points in a location: a conversation at a table in that bar, a memory of a meeting in this plaza, something strange that happened at this corner. Most important is that the confessions always have a concrete relationship to a specific space, thus creating coordinates to trace this emotional map together with the residents of this urban habitat. The confessionals are positioned in the space where these events took place, as narrated in the confessions. They are small closed cabinets, blue in colour, covered with a transparent material, designed by set designer Hella Prokoph from Germany. This project was performed in the following places: – SESC Sorocaba, SP (Brazil). 2012. – Arts Exhibition Mostra SESC de Cultura, Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará (Brazil). 2010 – Córdoba (Argentina). 2008. CAST: Concept, direction and dramaturgy: Ariel Dávila + Christina Ruf Sound design and original music: Guillermo Ceballos Set design: Hella Prokoph (Berlín, Alemania) Set creation: Michael Martino (Sorocaba) Zé Cicero (Juazeiro do Norte) Arqu. César Spalletti, Hella Prokoph (Córdoba) General production: Felipe França González (Difusa Fronte[i]ra) (Córdoba, Sorocaba) George Belisario (Juazeiro do Norte)
homo-migrator.www (Virtual Performances – laboratory for virtual theatre) (2011) The project Virtual Performances – virtual laboratory for theatre was born in 2008 and consists of a series of virtual-theatrical interventions via online videoconference. homo-migrator.www revolves around the issue of migration in general and in relation to the world wide web (www.): Migration of people, but also migration of data, goods, information. Video-chat has become the main communication tool of the migrant. The world wide web is a medium that seems to have become essential for buying, selling, communicating, showing off, and even deceiving each other. Four actors, some of whom are migrants, others with relatives abroad, interact with the audience via Skype from their places of residence. What does it mean to be in another place, what is a foreigner, in the age of cyberspace? This work was produced with the support of the artistic residency of Nau Côclea, Camallera, Spain (2010) and has the support of the National Endowment for the Arts (2011). It was presented at the MERCOSUR International Festival of Theatre, Córdoba 2011. CAST: Concept, direction and general dramaturgy: Christina Ruf + Ariel Dávila (BiNeural-MonoKultur) Acting + dramaturgy: Germany / Berlin: Florian Loycke (Das Helmi) and Katharina Schröder Brazil / Sao Paulo: Ieltxu Martínez Ortueta (Kapota mas não breka) Colombia / Bogotá: Santiago Merchant, Ricardo de la Vega and Irene Romero (Santagalatea Proyect) Spain / Madrid, Burgos: Cecilia Peréz-Pradal (Cía. Puctum) Colaboration in Germany (Stage development): Meret Kiderlen Stage assistants: Gabriela Aguirre, Farina Bender, Tamara Franck, Jimena Garrido Original concept (Virtual Performances): BiNeural-MonoKultur, Meret Kiderlen and Carolina Defossé DURATION: approx. 70 min.
eRRor – un juego con tra(d)ición (eRRor – a game of tradition and treason) (Non-fictional theatre) (2011 – 2014) An actor and geneticist, together with an actress who is also an activist for the villages being fumigated in real life, play a game where chance and error play a key role. On a board based on “Monopoly”, participants move through different squares, where their fate is decided. Soy production, small town life, theatre, activism and biotechnology all come together to create a cocktail between fiction and reality. The work was developed out of a call for entries in late 2010 by the Goethe Institute Cordoba concerning ERROR in its various meanings. We were among those selected, with a project that revolves around questions of error and the cultivation of GM crops in Argentina. Using techniques of documentary theatre and with a biting satirical outlook, we approach a current issue that is relevant not just at the regional level, but also from a national and international standpoint: the problem of fumigated villages in the province of Cordoba, national policies and an economy dependent on agricultural exports, multinational companies in the biotechnology sector, and control of the global food market. This work formed part of the series of performances “[Symbolic] Materialization of error”, organized by the Goethe Institute Córdoba, and was awarded a production subsidy from the Province and the National Theatre Institute (2011). Participated at: – 1. Festival “El Urondo – Festival for Theatre, Politics and Society”, Córdoba (Arg.). 2014. – Second Festival “Estival del Teatro Independiente”, Córdoba (Arg.). 2014. – Participation at the conference via Skype of the transdiciplinary festival “Odyssey : climate” (Bremerhaven, Germany). We talked about how we incorporate the themes climate and environment in our works and especially about “eRRor – a game of tradition and treason”. Theater Stadttheater Bremerhaven (Germany). 2013. – Theatre Festival for children and adolescents “Señores Niños ¡Al Teatro!”, Unquillo (Cba) und Córdoba Capital (Argentina). 2013. – Theatre Festival “100 Horas de Teatro”, Córdoba (Argentina), 2013. – Theatre La Chacarita, Córdoba (Argentina). 2012. – Cordoba Socio-Environmental Meeting, Malvinas Argentinas (Córdoba, Arg). 2012. – Rafaela Theatre Festival 2012 (Argentina). 2012. – 12th Regional Theatre Festival of Centre Litoral 2012, Rosario and Oncativo (Argentina). 2012. – Theatre Documenta/Escénicas, Córdoba (Argentina), 2012. – Provincial Theatre Festival 2012, Córdoba (Argentina). 2012. – Goethe Institute Córdoba (Argentina). 2011. Production for the Goethe Institute Córdoba. September 2011. CAST: Concept, direction, dramaturgy: Christina Ruf + Ariel Dávila (BiNeural-MonoKultur). Colaboration in concept and dramaturgy: Hernán Rossi, and Laura Gallo. Acting: Hernán Rossi (green player), Laura Gallo (orange player) (*) and Gabriela Aguirre (referee) (**). Stage setting: Lilian Mendizábal. Sound design: Yamil Burguener. Video: Hernán Rossi Live camera, dramaturgy + production assistance, board design: Natalia Rojo. Lighting Technician: Agustina Marquéz Technicians video + sound: Ariel Dávila + Christina Ruf Production: BiNeural-MonoKultur (*) replaced by Melina Passadore for the shows at the Theatre Festivals “Señores Niños ¡Al Teatro!” and “100 Horas de Teatro” (2013). (**) replaced by Valeria Urigu for the show at the Theatre Festival of Rafalea (2012). DURATION: approx. 90 min.
OTRA FRECUENCIA – audioperformance de a dos (OTHER FREQUENCY – audioperformance for two) (2010 – 2016) An interactive work for two people. Each couple / pair listen with headphones to the instructions of four fictional characters. The piece combines suspense, intrigue and science fiction. The spectators themselves are the actors, each of which, although in pairs, take very different trips, with their perception of the world constantly being put in doubt. To enter, just put the headphones in and press “play” in the mp3 player. From now on, each spectator / par ticipant enters the world of a virtual character, both of whom have a mission that involves the other. This performance was presented in: – International Festival Cena CumpliCidades. Recife / Olinda (Pernambuco, Brazil). October 2016. – Virada Cultural, Sesc Vila Mariana, São Paulo (Brazil). June / July 2015. – International Festival “PIROLOGÍAS VIII – Festival del Conurbano”, Buenos Aires (Arg). Octubre 2014. – National Festival “Muestra Nacional de Teatro Independiente Rodolfo Gomez”, Río Cuarto / Córdoba (Arg.). August 2014. – XIV International Festival FIA, San José (Costa Rica). April 2014. – VII Festival “Litoral Encena”, Caraguatatuba (Brazil). October 2013. – Festival de Inverno SESC Araraquara (Brazil). July /August 2013. – Virada Cultural, Saõ Paulo (Brazil). May 2013. – SESC Riberão Preto, SP (Brazil). November 2012. – SESC Santos, SP (Brazil). August 2012. – Cultural Centre Centro Cultural do Banco de Nordeste BNB, Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará + Sousa, Paraíba (Brazil). July + August 2012. – International Theatre Festival Cena Contemporânea, Brasilia (Brazil). July 2012. – Theatre Festival of Rafaela, Rafaela (Arg). July 2012. – International Theatre Festival FIT, São José do Rio Preto, SP (Brazil). July 2012. – 1st Days of Performance Study, UNC – Cepia, Córdoba (Arg). May 2012. – Cultural Centre Crearte, Córdoba (Arg). April 2012. – Cultural Centre La Cúpula Galeria de Arte / Media Lab, Córdoba (Arg). 2011. – Humboldt Institute, San Pedro Sula (Honduras), 2011. – Performance Festival Habeas Corpus, Chateau CAC, Córdoba (Arg). 2010. CAST: Spanish version: Concept, script and direction: Christina Ruf and Ariel Dávila (BiNeural-MonoKultur) Voices: Marcelo Arbach, Magui Buteler, Ieltxu Ortueta Martínez and Valeria Urigu Sound design and music: Guillermo Ceballos Portuguese version: Concept, script and direction: Christina Ruf and Ariel Dávila (BiNeural-MonoKultur) Voices: Carlos Morelli, Manuela Afonso, Ieltxu Martínez Ortueta, Vanessa Bruno Sound design and music: Guillermo Ceballos Translation to Portuguese: Daniel Gonzalez Xavier Production in Brazil: Felipe França Gonzalez (Difusa Fronte(i)ra) DURATION: approx. 45 min.