Pedro Barateiro’s project “The Inverted Journey” is a performance and installation commissioned by BoCA that allows him to work on the stage of the Sala Garrett of the National Theatre, having as its backdrop the exploitation of the lithium mines in Portugal, in an investigation that also goes through the book “Queda sem fim, seguido de Descida de Maleström, de Edgar Allan Poe”, written by José A. Bragança de Miranda.
Lithium is the main component in the production of computer batteries, tablets and cellphones, but is also used to treat episodes of depression and bipolarity, working as a mood stabilizer. Appealing to the substance and its uses, the project represents a map of the contemporary condition, illuminating the way different narratives connect and contradicting its usual presentation as independent phenomenons. Amidst the addressed questions it is included the registration of the current economic model in the history of colonialism and the relation of both with the past and present of material and symbolic extraction works. It is also examined the way these dynamics participate in the current situation of ecological and humanitarian emergency.
“The Inverted Journey” is the most complex performance and installation work the artist has conceived to this date, with the work having the stage in mind and being built from text, sculptures and video, that give continuity to some of the questions raised posteriorly in Barateiro’s creation. “The Inverted Journey” leans on the performance of its very own Pedro Barateiro, of Lula Pena, of dancer Luís Guerra, and with musical arrangement and performance by Raw Forest (Margarida Magalhães).
