Project Dam 5
Offrir quelques mots à la rive
by
Marco Godinho & Fábio Godinho
Actor, director and performer Fábio Godinho develops various activities around the body, in theatre, contemporary dance and artistic performances.
In 2009, he presented Fernando Pessoa's The Privilege of the Ways at the Avignon Festival with his company, Théâtre de Personne.
In 2013, he was a finalist for the Prix Théâtre 13 / Jeunes Metteurs en scène with Hotel Palestine by Falk Richter. In 2015, with Des voix sourdesby Bernard-Marie Koltès, he was at the Loge in Paris, and at the Avignon Festival in 2016. In 2017 he toured France with the Compagnie Mavra for Play Loud by Falk Richter, and with Myriam Muller at the Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg for Rumpelstilzchen a tale by the Grimm brothers.
His production of Sales gosses at the Théâtre du Centaure in 2018 was selected by the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture for the Festival d'Avignon off in 2021. He collaborates as a performer in Marco Godinho's art films, in 2017 Notes sur cette terre qui respire le feu filmed on Mount Etna and in 2019 Written by Water presented at the Venice Biennale.
The works of Marco Godinho, a Luxembourgish artist of Portuguese origin, often have a personal, poetic and philosophical dimension. The artist questions notions such as time, displacement or memory, and invites us to perceive what too often escapes us. Sensitive to the evocative qualities of the elements and materials he uses, Godinho creates metaphorical works from which emerge images that feed our desires and dreams.
Selected solo exhibitions since 2006:
58th Venice Biennale, Luxembourg Pavilion, Italy (2019); Le Parvis, Tarbes, France (2019); Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada; Salomon Foundation, Annecy, France (2018); MAMAC, Nice, France (2016); MNAC, Lisbon, Portugal (2015); MUUA, Medellín, Colombia; Faux Mouvement, Metz, France; Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain (2013); Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Germany (2012); Hervé Bize Gallery, Nancy, France (2016, 2012, 2009, 2007).
The project Offrir quelques mots à la rive (Offering a few words to the shore) at dam number 5, is located at the end of the festival route, from which the duo imagined́ a footbridge leading to a circular lookout, located at the threshold of the artificial basin. In the centre of this platform one discovers a megaphone that encourages one to speak into it, while turning around. When no one activates the megaphone, it indicates like a weather vane where the wind is blowing from.
This arrival point is thought́ as a place where one comes to bring to nature, and blow to the world, poetic offerings. This footbridge, a natural border between forest and river, creates a link between physical and mental space.
Moreover, the performative creation of this installation is the result of a writing residency on site, allowing the preparation of a series of readings. The texts, published in a book, are the trace of the thoughts and conversations between the two artists, who were inspired by testimonies collected from local inhabitants and the relationship we feel with nature and the elements.
Thus, the work comes to life as a collective and aims to create socio-cultural links anchored in the territory. Through the social link, the project opens up to economic and ecological questions about respect for nature and the economy of the means that it puts in place in a concrete manner.
In Offrir quelques mots à la rive, the language, the sound of words and orality are fundamental elements, and through this installation, allow the creation of a neutral place where speech is liberated and shouted to the world with ardour.
« Offrir quelques mots à la rive »
(Offering a few words to the shore)
Stage creation, writing : Marco Godinho
Performative creation, writing : Fábio Godinho
Design in the framework of WaterWalls Festival, Esch-sur-Sûre, 2021
Production : Séibühn