ABRAHAMIC WHOLENESS (or my God is better than yours) – Helena Botto

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17 April 2016 / 7:30 pm / DNA – Space for Contemporary Dance and Performance / ANTISTATIC / Sofia, Bulgaria

Helena Botto (Portugal / Germany)

Concept, performance and space Helena Botto Sound design and performance Joshua Rutter (première) / Marc Philipp Gabriel Dramaturgical consultant Iva Sveshtarova Sound devices and mics (research) Nikola Pieper Light adaptation and operation Víctor Pequeño, Nikola Pieper Collaboration Florian Feigl, Victoria Perez Royo, Tal Ilan and Sophia New Support  Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum für Tanz (HZT), Universität der Künste Berlin.

Duration: 80 min.
In English.

Abrahamic Wholeness (or my God is better than yours)” takes a distant look at the idea of God. From the sacrifice of Ishmael/Isaac (or Abraham’s crime in potency), through the Passion of Christ until Quran descriptions about how to deal with the unfaithful, the wholeness of God seems to be a way to unconsciously create divisions instead of unicity. Using elements derived from visual imagery, praying gestures, ritual practices and symbolism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as humourous interpretations from Biblical and Quranic scripts, Helena Botto represents God as a female creature, portraited with psychological characteristics. She is as an incomplete hybrid creature in a constant state of becoming. She is “the Mother” of all things, the Creator, the sovereign figure, supreme entity, who, nevertheless, reveals Herself to be full of fragilities, an egocentric creature begging to be loved. A lonely and old creature, unable to present Paradise and often complainant. She is the whore, the terrorist soldier, the blackmailer, the housewife, the boss and ultimately the performer as well.

Helena Botto is a Portuguese performance artist based in Berlin. Her background is in physical theater: Jerzy Grotowski’s methodology of physical actions. From 1996 till 2005 she worked and performed in Acto – Institute for Dramatic Art (Portugal). In 2006, she started to work as an independent artist and researcher, developing her own performance practice and since then she has created more than a dozen stage works. In 2015, she received her M.A. in Solo/Dance/Authorship (with distinction) from the Inter-University Centre of Dance (HZT), Berlin. In her recent works, she has been interested in form and content of deconstructing social and political issues.

The guest-performance is supported by Goethe-Institut Bulgaria.

Photo: André Uerba