Moving [m]others
- Performative installation
- CNDB Itinerant
Info
Some things seem obvious, but they still need to be underlined. March 1 and 8 are not about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way we perceive that power, about taking ownership and freedom of choice. Not at all by chance, on 1 and 8 March, the CNDB presents Moving [m]others at ARCUB.
Moving [m]others is a layered, cumulative and unpredictable performative installation, like the earth that attracts, sustains, vibrates, creates, nourishes us and opens up. A map of desires, a game in which you discover the rules and follow your own needs. A journey guided by questions.
Who is a good mother? Who is a bad mother? If they hold you too tight, does your soul come out? How do you do when you stick your tongue out? Have you ever seen your mother cry? What do you want to be when you grow up? How were you born?
In 3 words, the installation would be called Tennis, Pasta and Deleuze. Gilles knew a lot about the transformation of sensations, about representing the body in the complexity of its becoming, through a sculptural painting that moved it from within. Only a mother can construct a performance from Deleuze’s texts while cooking and watching over each child’s activities. One day she cries so hard she collapses to the ground with the vacuum cleaner. A mother cries and laughs at the same time.
Here it’s okay to embody all the parts you’ve been stripped of and discover maternal bodies in all their complexity: polite, sophisticated, clueless. Assumed exactly as we are: pulled, pushed, kicked, supported, savaged or touched. It’s okay to give birth and be born at the same time. We mothers, dilated, heavy, light, lose our boundaries, are moved by our organs, crave contradictions and feed on them. We crash into it, love the paradox, the unpredictable, the logic of another being. We are relearning a primal communication, between us, women, and between us and our children, where the ancestral guides us, where the landmarks are body-to-body communication, language, biting, territoriality, tactility, sexuality.
If we cannot accept these layers within us, if we do not let our face and body be penetrated by emotions, our tongue will lose its ability to communicate, our lips will lose the ability to accept life, our teeth the ability to guard against the unpredictable and our skin to guard against what is not us.
This production originated in 2021 as part of an artist residency project in which 7 artist-mothers and one artist-daughter collectively explored motherhood through the lens of their own practices, and grew organically in 2022 as part of a new production project. Choreographic research, Feldenkrais method, dance therapy, tactile-kinesthetic workshops, improvisation in music and movement, film, modeling, drawing and creative writing were explored in a work-play continuum, integrating the creative energy of children, their needs for care and attention, artistic interests and the needs of mothers. Grandmothers, mothers, children, colleagues and fathers took part in the many workshops held at AREAL, providing a continuous source of inspiration and confirmation of the need to embrace the chaos of motherhood.
Project curator: Alexandra Bălășoiu
Concept and artistic direction: Valentina De Piante
Created and performed by: Alexandra Bălașoiu, Oana Băluță, Mădălina Dan, Valentina De Piante, Loredana Larionescu, Teodora Morosanu, Ada Anghel, Diana Spiridon
Co-created with: Laura Murariu, Silvia Niculae
Composition, sound design and live vocals: Teodora Moroșanu
Dramaturgical support: Ivana Ivkovic
Scenography: Silvia Niculae
Assist. Scenography: Eliza Voiculescu, Irina Ursea
Light design: Alexandros Raptis
Video: Silvia Niculae
Producer: Cristina Ispas
Produced by
Indie Box
Event organized by the National Center for Dance Bucharest in partnership with the City Hall of Bucharest through ARCUB – Cultural Centre of Bucharest.
Co-financed by
Administration of the National Cultural Fund
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.
Press
Special mentions
The center is where you dance. The center can be anywhere.
Production presented at ARCUB as part of the CNDB Itinerant – a season of performances in other venues in Bucharest and around the country.
01.03.2023
Wednesday
18:30
Wednesday
18:30
Moving [m]others
Concept and artistic direction: Valentina De Piante
Performance presented at ARCUB - Gabroveni Inn