𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢-𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠–𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨 is an artistic research project exploring togetherness and collectivity. How do people imagine, practice, and reinvent togetherness and collectivity in the current times? Searching for answers and on an expedition to listen to the voices of others, Maria invites people into a manicure session: Mani – the nail salon sessions. By holding their hands, she commits to sense the other’s otherness. The hands become a site for encountering the other through touch, weight, texture, temperature and smell. The conversations generated in these encounters will be the starting point for Festo. In Festo – dancing together, Maria works on translating aspects of Mani through a choreographic and performative vantage point.

In the first week of residency at BUDA, Maria will work on Mani- the nail salon session, offering a manicure to locals in exchange for a conversation (sign up here). On the second week of residency, together with dance artist Víctor Pérez Armero, Maria will dive into Festo – deepening the relation between two bodies. Together they’ll experiment with scores and somatic experiments that explore touch, interdependence, intimacy, and resistance.

Maria Ferreira Silva (PT)

Maria Ferreira Silva is a dance artist, born in Lisbon, and based in Brussels. In 2021 she opened an artistic research project that investigates the concept of Plasticity in relation to the performative and the choreographic. Maria is a dance artist and defines her artistic practice as a vibrant ecosystem where different practices, roles, and contexts, nurture and feed-forward her engagement with the art field.