Land ho! with Brazilian guide

In Wasteland (Terreno Baldio), land, time and memory are merged in the space of the body. Time causes transformations in the body, sometimes hardly noticeable. Memory reveals the traces of human actions and interactions. And land is a rich, changing, fragile body of its own.

This solo performance by Tais Almeida imagines the earth as the place of conflict between animals, fungi, waste. Mosses tear up the hardened ground and reveal the moist, subterranean soil that comes from deep within the body. Wasteland is also about power and war. In 1500, the ‘discoverers’ thought of Brazil as a wasteland, a land they could invade and plunder. Today, the war simply continues. Wasteland is a performance about dancing out of habit, because there is no other way, because it is who we are.

Tais Almeida

Tais Almeida (BR) was born and raised in Cavalcanti, north of Rio de Janeiro. She works as a performer, dancer and audiovisual artist. She is founder of the Cavalcanti-se Project, in which Cavalcanti’s history and memories are explored. She is also co-director of the artistic project BERRO.