Ana Rita Teodoro

Dreams often fail for lack of inspired interpreters.
Yemisi Aribisala in "Dreams, the jurisdiction of the mouth, and non-conclusions on hunger."

Where does the enchantment of the earth and the landscape drain to? Where did the image of the desert become fixed? Do we tend towards an opaque and mono-cultural vision? Where do food and affects reconnect? We need to denounce the spreading swaths of intensive and superintensive monocultures that are spreading: olive trees, almond trees, solar panels, berries… We need to recover an attentive, diverse, translucid way of looking at the landscape. We need to reformulate our relationship to food: domesticate or care for, produce or accompany? We need to reduce the empty consumption of food and landscape and reconnect our senses to thoughts, dreams, and desire. We need to tell other stories and let other beings speak.

A reading of Vegetable Beings takes the form of an oracle, in which questions are asked. The goal is not to foretell the future, but to carefully observe the sovereignty of the vegetable being, its form, colour, texture, taste and smell. Through conversation and collective speculation, we seek possible answers or new perspectives for our questions.

This research presentation is followed by a talk with researcher Teresa Castro about vegetality and food.

Ana Rita Teodoro's research and creative process is developed in the context of the Terra Batida project. A final performance will be presented in 2021.

Terra Batida is a constellation of people, practices and knowledge taking a stand against ecological violence and politics of abandonment. Local knowledge of socio-environmental conflicts combined with an active network create a context for resistance to extractive abuses and, also, for practices of care — speculation, fabulation, and building visions and reflections of the future for our weary, worn-out worlds. All Terra Batida events at Alkantara Festival are free to attend.

By and with Ana Rita Teodoro In conversation with Teresa Castro Artistic support Alina Ruiz Folini

Ana Rita Teodoro is a choreographer and pluridisciplinary artist. Her choreographic work is based in the idea of a Delirious Anatomy, which seeks to extrapolate temporalities, materials, textures, forms, colours, temperatures, and functions from conventional human body. She created MelTe, Orifice Paradis, Sonho d'Intestino, Palco, Assombro, Fofo, and the dance-lecture Your Teacher, Please. She has also created work for young audiences. She was an associate artist at CND (Centre National de la Danse, France) between 2017 and 2019. She is part of Associação Parasita.

Teresa Castro is an associate professor in the Film Studies department at Sorbonne University. Her recent research has focused on the relationship between cinema and animism. She has published articles on forms of vegetable life, including “Queer Botanics” (MAL A Journal of Sexuality and Erotics, 2019) and “The Mediated Plant” (E-flux journal, Setember 2019). She is a co-author, with Perig Pitrou and Marie Rebecchi, of the forthcoming book Puissances du végétal et cinéma animiste. La vitalité révélée par la technique (Presses du Réel).

Alina Ruiz Folini is an artist and researcher from Argentina. Her work includes choreography, dance, and curatorial practices. She is particularly interested in collaborating in artistic research and sees choreography as a way to de-naturalise normative experiences and provoke transformations. She holds an MA in Arts Practice and Visual Culture from Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid). She directs the performance meeting Archeologies of the Future in Buenos Aires. She created Ruído Rosa and As Mãos (co-created with Leticia Skrycky). As a dancer, she performs in Tamara Cubas' Trilogia Antropofágica and Série Canibal. She lives in Lisbon.