photo: gustavo ramos

SURFACES ( 2010 )

 

The work investigates the opposition of forces while working towards balance states. The concept is shown from the contact between two surfaces and by the level of pressure to which they are subjected. Thus, the greater the force applied, the more static and fragmented is the movement condition, whereas the smaller, more dynamic and continuous this condition becomes. Plate-shaped objects were developed to represent, through their sliding dynamics, the concept observed for the founding of the work. Determined by a composition that is sometimes arranged, sometimes aleatory, this clash of forces creates contrasts that can be noticed in all derived elements on stage: the black and white of the scenery, the presence of either sound or silence, the vertical or horizontal action of the performers, the sustaining and dropping of objects and the continuous or fragmented flows developed by them.

 

 

Technical Data

Concept and Direction - Roberto Ramos
Research and Development - Gustavo Ramos and Roberto Ramos
Soundtrack - Gustavo Ramos
Set Design and Objects - Roberto Ramos
Performance - Catalina Cappeletti, Gustavo Ramos and Roberto Ramos
Executive Production - Zizi Giraud
General Production - Hálux Produção Cultural
Sponsorship - Petrobras
Support - Pact Zollverein

 

Length

70 minutes

 

The original idea of the work “Surfaces” first came up in 2002 but at that time the development of the project had to be postponed sine die, until a better moment came for its application since the resources for its production could not be obtained.

 

Sponsored by Petrobras, "Surfaces" was also granted with the support of the Artistic Residence Program of Pact Zollverein, in Germany, where the whole pre-production phase of the project was carried out.

 

Since the first experiments, the main focus of the elaboration of the language of the work was the diversity of possibilities extracted from the relationship of pressure, impulse and sliding between the body and the contact surfaces.

Various objects were tested until an ideal version was found, which had to be versatile enough to provide the full action of the performer, within the study accomplished. The plates are, at the same time, a simple representation of the structural concept of the work and the element that conducts and integrates the action to the scenic space. The performers manipulate them close to their body, first in horizontal and vertical planes, and further keeping the maintenance of the perception between these two planes through its vectorial transition, which consequently fragments the space, encouraging the creation of contents and grading of movement.

 

The scenic space was conceived from the necessity to build possibilities of connection of the performers’ actions in the horizontal and vertical planes.The scenery, in your specific disposition, creates the angle and the visual aspect required for the exhibition of the scene. The plastic aspect of the original idea was kept to emphasize the monochromatic composition of the white scenery in contrast with the objects and clothing composed in black. Following this same dynamic of opposition of forces, sound and silence take turns along the whole show, aiming at highlighting the plastic and kinetic essences of each scene.