ensaio aberto: ivu’kar, by joão grilo

Interested in the languages of wonder, the invisible and the absurd, Grilo is a performer, composer, poet and improviser. His work focuses on the intersection of music with writing, dance, theatre and cinema. He has participated in more than fifteen albums, composed a chamber opera and created soundtracks for dance, theatre and cinema performances. He is currently developing ivu’kar, a work that includes a sleeping concert, a multidisciplinary performance, a film, and artistic proposals for acts of collective care. The artist will be in residence at gnration and, at the end, will open the doors of the blackbox for the dress rehearsal of ivu’kar.

ivu’kar is a performance about care that develops around a visual, symbolic, sound and gestural language that I create in collaboration with my mother. It is a fiction of reality where we archive the invisible things in our lives, revisiting our rituals of mutual care at key moments such as my birth, my mother’s departure and the future. Ivu’kar accompanies us like an amulet or magical tool to process the experience of being born and the experience of dying. It is a way of continuing a fictional language that we invented when I was tiny. Then it is a practice of infinite translation of that language: into light, smoke, steam, piano, gestures, acts of care, ages, expectations and curiosity. Continuing the list: ivu’kar is about infinity, mother, son, bird, time, language, sister, amazement, laughter, crying, the collective, the sphere, the line and the forever. – Grilo

concept, performance, music grilo
creative support maria josé araújo
lighting design santiago tricot
sound design quico serrano
set design pedro azevedo
movement support and outside eye inês campos
dramaturgy support inês campos, pietro romani, ana madureira, vahan kerovpyan, mafalda araújo
sign language support rita soares, ges tu
production and management menosmuitomais crl

project funded by Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto, E.M., S.A. creative programme; Directorate-General for the Arts / Ministry of Culture and Fundação GDA.

support tba, kulturfabrik, circolando, osso colectivo, túnel, caaa, Catholic University of Porto, gnration

support portuguese republic – culture / general direction of the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theaters and cinemas.