AEQUARE

About

aequare : a dance performance

Ever been objectified? Cat-called or discriminated? Called a drama queen?

Are you sitting like a lady? Are you a good girl or a bad girl? Can you fight like a man? Are you a cry-baby?

Smile! Relax!

Just kidding.

aequare, a dance performance created by visual artist Pinelopi Triantafyllou in collaboration with dancers Iro Xyda and Ieva Bražėnaitė, explores wearable artwork through a dystopic and playful universe, which shifts from being to becoming, to overcoming — over and over again. To compare, to level, to make even, make straight, make equal. It's an attempt by the three female artists to answer one of the most pressing issues of our times: What does equality really look like? Will a world where women and men are equal ever be possible?

Without any investment, it could take almost 300 years to achieve gender equality, according to a daunting UN report.

Can we even imagine what our lives will look like in the distant 2323?

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The starting point of this collaboration was 'The Big Other', a textile artwork made by Pinelopi Triantafyllou in 2019, consisting of a man's suit jacket covered with handmade crochet female breasts. This work was inspired by the ambiguous Artemis Polymastos of Ephesus. An alabaster statue covered with 20 to 30 rounded bumps, it resembles breasts or, according to some experts, bull testicles.

When the dancers encountered the costume by chance, they were curious to learn how textile artwork, physical limits and scenography can shape and influence movement. In parallel, it also led them to question the rules imposed on women and men in a society that shapes their gender identity and choreographs their daily life.

Does gender equality mean integrity and oneness, or does it mean separation and otherness? Can we become stop being equal to something and become equals?

aequare will take place at Atelier Concorde, R. Leite de Vasconcelos 43A, 1170-198 Lisbon on March 4 and March 5 at 7pm.

*aequare(lat.) derives from aequalis, meaning action of making equal, equalizing

Artistic directrion: Pinelopi Triantafyllou

Dance and interpretation: Iro Xyda and Ieva Brazenaite

Sound design: Giovanni Rispoli

Photography: Francisco Cardoso

graphic design: Nella Stefanatou

Support: Atelier Concorde