Artist in the City Lisbon 2018

Brazilian author, director and filmmaker Christiane Jatahy is the 2018 Artist in the City. Recognized as one of the most important artists in contemporary theater, she has presented her work in the most important European and world theaters and festivals. Christiane Jatahy’s work, which Lisbon audiences have discovered in recent years, inhabits a border zone between theater and cinema, between great narratives and everyday episodes, and between the theatrical space and the street. In this fertile and difficult-to-classify territory, the artist proposes alternative perspectives that present themselves as new aesthetic and political possibilities for understanding the world, the other, and ourselves. Throughout 2018, the Artist in the City Biennial challenges Lisbon residents to a journey through the country made up of multiple borders that is Christiane Jatahy’s theater.

The first half of the year 2018 concentrates on her theater plays. In May, the D. Maria II National Theatre presents Julia, an adaptation of Miss Julie by August Strindberg; What If They Went to Moscow?, based on The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov; and The Walking Forest, inspired by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. There is also time for Christiane Jatahy to give a workshop aimed at students and professionals in the performing arts and for the launch of the book Fronteiras Invisíveis: diálogos para a criação de ‘A Floresta que Anda’ (Invisible Borders: dialogues for the creation of ‘The Walking Forest’) in Lisbon, about the process of creating this show. Finally, Ithaque – Our Odissee I, based on Homer and other inspirations, is presented at Teatro São Luiz in June, as part of the Alkantara Festival. Four plays that start from existing texts to create new reflections, always shuffling conventional logics on stage.

After the summer, it is time to take a look at Christiane Jatahy’s other works, moving away from the stage and getting closer to cinema. The transition between the two universes of the Brazilian creator is made with Moving People, a performance-documentary, which is presented in a container installed at the Lisbon Museum in September, inviting the participation of immigrants in the city. 

In November, as part of the Temps D’Images festival, Cinema Ideal hosts the documentaries Utopia.doc and In the Comfort of Your Own Home, directed by Jatahy; Cinema São Jorge screens the film A Falta que nos Move, as well as Fidélio, a filming of her opera at the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro; and Cinemateca Portuguesa shows a selection of films chosen by the artist. 

To close the Artist in the City 2018 program, São Luiz opens its theater doors from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. to host the video installation A Falta que nos Move, thirteen continuous hours of footage projected on three screens in real-time. A cinema happening and a party, involving the audience in a living performance.

Program

Julia
4 – 6 May 2018
NATIONAL THEATER D.MARIA II

What If They Went to Moscow?
11 – 13 May 2018
D.MARIA II NATIONAL THEATER

The Walking Forest
18 – 20 May 2018
D.MARIA II NATIONAL THEATER

Relationship. Reaction. Creation.
07 – 09 May 2018
D.MARIA II NATIONAL THEATER

Invisible Borders: Dialogues for the creation of The Walking Forest
19 May 2018
TEATRO NACIONAL D.MARIA II

ITHAQUE – Our Odyssey I
07 – 11 June 2018
SÃO LUIZ MUNICIPAL THEATRE (part of the Alkantara Festival)

Moving People
20 – 23 June 2018
MUSEUM OF LISBON (part of Lisboa na Rua / programming in public spaces)

In the Comfort of Your Own Home
08 – 15 November 2018
IMAGE TEMP’S AT IDEAL CINEMA

Utopia.doc
08 – 15 November 2018
TEMP’S OF IMAGE IN THE IDEAL CINEMA

Christiane Jatahy’s cinema selection
November 2018
PORTUGUESE CINEMATHEQUE

The Lack that Moves Us
20 – 21 November 2018
CINEMA SÃO JORGE

Fidélio
21 November 2018
CINEMA SÃO JORGE

The Lack That Moves Us
24 November 2018
SÃO LUIZ MUNICIPAL THEATER