This work, created for the Encontros do Devir Festival, was developed around the process of desertification/dehumanization of the Caldeirão Mountain, in the interior of Algarve (south of Portugal). One of the conditions of this commission was that I would have to record and use video images made on site. I did film at the mountain and I did incorporate images of mine in the piece but I mostly used Michel Giacometti’s films, especially the recordings of work songs. The whole piece is peopled by voices that come from afar…
With this “broad picture” of the Caldeirão highlanders, I address in this piece all the different people that possess a knowledge that we have lost a knowledge on the link between body and spirit, between ordinary life and art. A knowledge that we can (and should, for our own good) retrieve. My dance at the end, with my precious cork trunk, is my tribute to this knowledge.
VERA MANTERO (Portugal)
Studied classical dance with Anna Mascolo and danced in the Gulbenkian Ballet between 1984 and 1989. Mantero started choreographing in 1987 and, since 1991, has been presenting her solo and group work all over Europe, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, South Korea and the USA.
In 2013 and 2014 Mantero created the performance installations “Shadows on offer” and “More or Less, but Less than More”, this last piece presented in two different versions: occupying the whole space of the auditorium – seating and proscenium - in 2013, and at urban vegetable gardens created for the final presentation of the project in 2014. “More or Less, but Less than More” was created in partnership with Culturgest and Maria Matos Municipal Theatre under the
scope of the Create to Connect project financed by the European Commission. These projects, as well as the artist’s new creation “The Clean and The Dirty”, premiered in April 2016 at the Maria Matos Theatre in the framework of the cycle “The Three Ecologies” co-commissioned by Vera Mantero with Mark Deputter and Liliana Coutinho, clearly reflect the choreographer’s concerns for fundamental issues such as the environment, economic sustainability, social cohesion and inclusion, and Citizenship. Her artistic work has been recognized with institutional prizes such as the Prémio Almada (Ministry of Culture - 2002) or the Prémio Gulbenkian Arte for her career as creator and performer (2009), as well as through initiatives such as the retrospective organized by Culturgest in 2009, entitled “Month of March, Month of Vera”, or the Portuguese representation at the 26th São Paulo Art Biennale (2004) with a work co-created with the sculptor Rui Chafes, entitled “Eating your Heart Out”. The influent Brazilian newspaper O Globo elected “The Caldeirão Highlanders, exercises in fictional anthropology” as one of the best 10 dance pieces presented in 2014.
Vera Mantero participates regularly in international improvisation projects alongside improvisers and choreographers such as Lisa Nelson, Mark Tompkins, Meg Stuart and Steve Paxton. Since the year 2000 Vera Mantero has also been exploring vocal work, either singing the repertoire of different authors or co-creating experimental music projects. She regularly teaches composition and improvisation in Portugal and abroad.
