LAVAGEM

In Alice Ripoll and Cia REC’s latest work, Lavagem, reality and fantasy mix together in a delirium, reminding us of an apocalyptic dream. With the help of buckets, water and soap, this performance investigates ambivalent images taking into account, and critically observing, the act of cleaning and its scenic and historical unfolding. The elements used here create multiple poetic images of exodus, crossings, rituals, rebirth, and resistance.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the word “lavagem” means cleanliness, the act of cleaning, sanitation, but it also means pigs will. “Lavagem de dinheiro”, or money laundering, is an expression used to disguise the illicit origin of revenues. “Lavagem cerebral”, or brainwashing, is what you do to force someone to think a certain way. “Alma lavada”, or cleansed soul, means we have experienced great relief and now feel peaceful, with no pending matters to resolve.

What actually needs to be cleaned? The houses, the dirt inside the rooms? The trails left behind, the historical facts? The scents of body fluids, those we smell when we come close to each other? Soap foam colors the bodies and hints at invisibility; bubbles suggest a world of dreams, standing in stark contrast to the severe lack of social mobility in the real world.

The audience may look at this piece from a pictorial point of view, but they might also feel touched by issues relating to social status and hierarchy, destinies previously traced, and opportunities.

By building a close relationship with the audience, this piece fosters the possibility of finding new ways to establish contact between performers and spectators, proposing a new experience of a shared space. Physical closeness can evoke claustrophobia, and suggest concrete or symbolic tightness; but it can also present itself as a cozy womb, where smells, skin textures, and the warmth that emanates from the bodies are perceived.

Lavagem presents an ancestral past filled with struggles, but also with secrets about joy and cheerfulness.