Resorting to objects from the history of Dance, choreographic composition, musical composition and cinema, Swanography is a cross-disciplinary project that rethinks and works on supports used when creating and presenting performing arts.
As a choreographic and musical work, this took the form of a challenge: to re-create Le cygne, the 13th movement of Camille Saint-Säens’ suite Le Carnaval des animaux. Thus, this work is the response of thirteen choreographers, interpreters, performers and one composer to the proposed challenge: an individual recreation of their own dying swan, according to their personal languages and work codes. Each solo was filmed in different rooms of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, allowing for compositions that are closely related to each room and works of art therein.
A pillar of innovation is thus established with this project, in exploring the already consolidated identity of each creator now challenged to interpret one of Dance's major solos and symbols – The Swan –, connected to the representation of death and rebirth, the end of a cycle, individuality of movement, and closely linked to the gender issue, its contexts and ideologies, and its relationship with music, seeking to review and intervene on the way in which choreography and dance set ideological patterns that determine or question the prevailing ethical and aesthetic regimes.
The result is a screen installation with access to the 13 solos, and a film that is a crossing of all the re-creations.
Conception and direction Luiz Antunes • Artistic direction and project development André Mendes, Luiz Antunes • Invited artists Ana Moreno, Allan Falieri, David Marques, Guilherme Leal, Joana Castro, Luiz Antunes, Marco da Silva Ferreira, Maurícia | Neves, São Castro, Nina Botkay, Tânia Carvalho, Thamiris Carvalho, Vasco Araújo • Musical composition Diogo Alvim • Photography direction Margarida Dias • Camera and editting Tomás Pereira • Camera assistant Laura Dias • Production Heurtebise • Communication and digital programming Marco Oliveira • Translation Francisco da Silva Pereira • Technical support and implementation Balaclava Noir • Institutional partner Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga • Partners 23 Milhas, Câmara Municipal do Fundão, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Quinta da Cruz – Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Rua das Gaivotas 6 • Support Direção-geral das Artes – Ministério da CulturaAcknowledgment Álvaro Campo, Eduardo Alves Marques, Luís Sá Nogueira, Marco Olival, Ricardo Lapão, Saníssimo, Tiago Santos • acknowledgment MNAA Ana Sousa, Anísio Franco, Inês Silva, Irina Duarte, Marta Carvalho, Patrícia Machado, Paulo Jorge Pires, Ramiro Gonçalves