Only that which is not mine interests me, the law of man, the law of the Anthropophage
Anthropophagy is a cannibalistic ritual practiced by the indigenous Tupis in pre-colonial Brazil. The ritual consisted in the eating of the flesh of the captivated enemy. It was not a form of cruel revenge or destruction but rather an act of symbolic ingestion and incorporation of the other. It was believed that such act would lead to the enemy’s strength being absorbed and digested. By eating the other and by letting the other enter your body, a new and stronger undefined being would organically arise. Anthropophagy focuses on assimilation, and on corporal and erotic communication.
The Anthropophagic Trilogy is organized as a cannibalistic ritual, in the metaphorical sense, where three existing Brazilian performing art works are being cannibalised to give birth to three new works. The Anthropophagic Trilogy is not about devouring the antagonist or colonizer; it is about liberating relationships from colonial intentions, not as a strategy to create a new art work but as a political act towards the relationship with the other.
To that end, Tamara Cubas has selected three agreeable bodies/works.
Just as the anthropophagic cultural movement originated in Brazil, the three choreographic works that obsess Tamara Cubas were created in that country. A verb is assigned to each of the works.
To remain — Vestigios by Marta Soares
To resist — Matadouro by Marcelo Evelin
To occupy — Pororoca by Lia Rodriguez
To remain, to resist, to occupy — a trilogy that will start with grouping material based on desire in action – a trilogy that will result in a new body: passionately desired, unpredictable, and averse to the logic of a project that normally would require control and unity of action. The purpose is the banquet, the celebration and the moment of eating. The resulting works are but the consequence of that encounter.