Né Barros (Portugal) & Patricija Gilytė (Lithuania-Germany) & “Aura” Dance Theatre (Lithuania) “4 millions”
Né Barros (choreographer) and Patricija Gilyte (visual artist)
Music: Antanas Dombrovskij
Dancers: Andrius Stakele, Gotaute Kalmataviciute, Marius Pinigis and Ruta Lelyte
Singing: Skaidra Jancaite
Light design: Alexandre Vieira
Premiere: 11th of November, 2011
During her flight to meet Né Barros in the spring 2011 Patricija Gilytė was reading Lithuanian newspaper articles. One article stated that economical migration in Lithuania resulted the loss of one third of a million of local population during the last years, other article spoke about allocation of financial capital in Lithuanian markets. Both articulated the term million, which later came to be the starting point of the collaborative project and the metaphor 4 millions. Styrofoam in the works of Patricija Gilytė is the extension of her own body. Generally in her performances and video works, Patricija makes an association between the surface of Styrofoam and the human skin, also she interprets landscape as the skin of the Earth. In some way this point of view was very much in connection to the creative universe of Né Barros. The choreographer has been exploring in her works notion of landscape, deterritorialization or borders and in doing that, Né Barros uses the body and its surroundings in a dramaturgy of moves and displacements where subject or object are no longer individual and physical object respectively. The resulting work of this specific project was a lengthy dance performance, mediating between theatrical and performative event. According to Né Barros, here styrofoam becomes more evocative of a subjective land where the dancers are the walkers, constructors and the transformers and a symbolical representation of the issue of concrete migration. During the performance that special land is an extent of the dancers, is part of their bodies, is an extension of them evolving into the new territory and the new inhabitation of the performance “4 millions“.
Né Barros Choreographer and dancer, has been developing her artistic work in connection with her scientific studies and research focusing on the contemporary dance and performance. Doctorate in Dance (FMH, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa), Master of Arts in Dance Studies (Laban Centre, City University, London). Since 2010 she is a researcher at the Institute of Philosphy in the group “Aesthetic, Politics and Art” (University of Porto). She began her training in classical dance and later worked in contemporary dance and choreographic composition in the United States, Smith College. She studied sciences at the University of Porto and achieved a B.A. degree in theatre (ESAP). She has presented most of her performances with company balleteatro since the beginning of the nineties and also worked with the National Dance Company (awarded Best Choreography) and with Ballet Gulbenkian. As an actress, has worked on cinema and theatre. In 2006 and 2007 she was a member of the board of selection in the Festival of short films of Vila do Conde. Invited teacher at ESAP, FMH, ESD, ESE. Collaborator at Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo where, from 2006 to 2009, was leader of the research group of Arts History, Theory and Criticism. From 2005 to 2007 was a researcher at IHA- Estudos de Arte Contemporânea. Has several published articles and in 2009, published two books: Da materialidade na dança (transl. On the materiality of dance) and Story Case print, this one in co-authoring. She is a member of the Direction of balleteatro of which she was a founder. www.balleteatro.pt
The visual repertoire of Germany based Lithuanian artist Patricija Gilyte (Lithuania-Germany) includes performative sculpture, video art and installation. She explores these medias while mixing and interlacing, creating cross-relations between them. She graduated with Master of Arts degree from Lithuania Art Academy, Kaunas Art Institute in 2001, and moved to Germany to continue her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. In her works she handles the topics of nature, landscape, human body and its connection to surroundings. Exploring the metaphor of “home” in her work she aims to evoke a binding feeling of place, which essentially always remains utopian. She has the strong identification with the North. Patricija Gilyte is playing with references from numerous sources, including Lithuanian poetry and literary sources from the XIX century, landscape, geography, cultural traditions and its boundaries, ancient culture myths. Her work utilizes these different cultural phenomena in an open approach that embraces their relationships to each other. As a symbol of deep attachment to Lithuania, she intensifies, in her complex installations, the experience of a natural habitat and the process of detachment that arises from migration. The viewer is allowed to participate in her experience. Patricija Gilyte often points out the importance of video medium, because it is an excellent mean of storing and transporting information between different places or cultures. 2005 PG video performance “Heed 360°“ got excellence award in the category of “concept“ by Kaunas art Biennial textile05. PG work has been shown in various exhibitions and video festivals, was supported by grants and developed during the residencies and collaborative projects in Germany and other countries (Poland, Turkey, Lithuania and Greece).
