In “Lavagem”, the most recent work by the Brazilian choreographer Alice Ripoll and Cia. REC, reality and fantasy merge in a delirium, like an apocalyptic dream. With the help of buckets, water and soap, the performance looks into ambivalent imagery around the act of washing, critically observing the unravelling of scenic and historical elements. The objects used multiply in poetic images of exodus, crossings, rituals, rebirth and resistance.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the word “lavagem” means wash, the act of cleaning, sanitising, but also relates to dirtiness in other senses: “lavagem de dinheiro” (money laundering) is used to describe the illicit origin of money; “lavagem cerebral” (brainwashing) is what can be done to a person in order to control them, as well as their way of thinking.
What does in fact need to be cleaned? Houses, dirtiness? Traces left, historical facts? Scents of bodily fluids, as we get close? The foam stains the bodies and refers to invisibility, the bubbles evoke a dream world, in contrast with the harsh lack of social mobility in the real world.
Alan Ferreira
Hiltinho Fantástico
Katiany Correia
Rômulo Galvão
Tony Hewerton
Tuany Nascimento
“Lavagem” presents an ancestry of fights, but also secrets about the joys of not becoming attached to the idea of winning the race for more capital.
