Radical Tenderness

Feeling it. What? Do you? Do you listen? Listening inside out. What happens if we don’t do anything? Bodies moving together through space, rhythms, times. Connecting, following, letting go of each other. Body-space. Holding each other. Holding on to each other. City-jungle. Co-existing. Co-depending. Look around. Listen through your skin. Being part of it. Touching it. What? Can’t you feel it?

A process | An encounter | A performance | A manifesto

Today’s reality is fast, restless and chaotic. Time to carefully listen and interact with each other has become a scarce resource. Tenderness instead, is mostly associated with a specific quality of being with each other, that is driven by love, affection and dedication.

Contumil

Performers: Ana Teixeira, Bia Lacerda, Catarina Teixeira, Isis Joaquim, Jéssica Daniela, José Medina, Lisandro Cardoso, Maria Inês Silva, Leonor Moreira, Rodrigo António, Samuel Machado

Santarém

Performers: Catarina Mendes, Constança Frade, Isa Almeida, João Carvalho, Luana Carreira, Martim Hickel e Rodrigo Ferreira

During a one-week artistic residency a group of young adults explored the idea of radical tenderness through the creation of sound and movement: What happens if we practice tenderness collectively? If we take the time to really listen to each other, to look at the world with eyes that really want to see it. If we understand our vulnerability as a space to connect, our co-dependencies as a moving network that holds us together rather than separating us..

Does tenderness then become a form of protest? An act of proposing a radically different reality based on connection, affection and dedication? The result of this artistic research is an occupation of tender spaces inside ourselves and public spaces we share.

Who are you tender to?

Tenderness is deep emotional concern about another being, its fragility, its unique nature, and its lack of immunity to suffering and the effects of time. Tenderness perceives the bonds that connect us, the similarities and sameness between us. It is a way of looking
that shows the world as being alive, living, interconnected, cooperating with, and codependent on itself.

The tender narrator, Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel prize for Literature, 2019

Artistic Direction: Janne Schröder

Movement: Tabea Sandmann

Sound: Joana Rodrigues

Video Archive: Alexandra Côrte-Real

Scenography: Fernando Almeida

Graphic Design: Sérgio Couto

Communication: Carolina Bravo

Direction of Production: Carina Moutinho

Executive Production: João Soares