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From the archive · 2013

Montemor-o-Novo: Brainstorming [Phase #3]

A projected black-and-white portrait inside the Convento da Saudação performance space

From Antwerp, via a week in Malmö the previous December, Portugal is now our land of creation.

In residence at O Espaço do Tempo—a multidisciplinary research and residency centre established by Rui Horta in Montemor-o-Novo—our brainstorming with choreographer Philippe Blanchard continues. During our first two weeks here, we have begun discussing the main theme of appearances, opening up the many different aspects and interests we want to explore in the new project, provisionally titled “Original Copy”.

We are thinking deeply about the content and surface of the project, moving towards the question: what is the now? What represents now, and how can it be defined? Catching the now, exploring its reproduction, and the inevitable evolution that occurs when reproducing it.

It has been a time when our brains have melted, yet our thinking has also progressed towards many more questions exploring the human psyche and identity.

In the mystical and magical setting of the Convento da Saudação, a concept seems to be forming around these words:

replacement, confrontation, duplication, transformation of time, proximity, condition, social codes, details, association, reaction, appearances, judgement.

It is now expanding in the direction of the line: “THIS IS THE STORY AND THE STORY IS MANY THINGS.”

To follow our theatre experiments, please visit the Original Copy blog, which Philippe Blanchard himself will update twice a week with documentation of our creative process.

A performer lying on the floor between two projected images in the Convento da Saudação performance space

This is our second project with Philippe Blanchard, following our first unique experience together in 2010 with the performance “How About You?”

“Original Copy” will premiere at Dance City Newcastle on 21 September 2013—a fantastic return to our adoptive hometown, which witnessed us setting out on our life journeys.