Tiago Guedes

Materiais Diversos (Various Materials)

In Materiais Diversos, the performer methodically starts measuring and marking space, gathering his body into an array of sober gestural impulses, segments, and inclinations. At first glance, everything seems absolutely concrete, evident. Present. A walking, living signal, the artist focuses his intense attention on raw signs of undisputed gestures, apparently senseless—allowing the audience to develop their own free narrative. These modest, scrupulous and fundamental gestures open the lock of a great and vast illusion. The hand traces a path, is exposed in the metaphor of a look. Time is subject to manipulations in the confines of space, where the art of choreography exists. In Materiais Diversos, Guedes meditates on the rediscovery of everyday materials and on ways of making them abstract, exploring the interaction of aesthetic and choreographic materials, the basic relationships between them. Materiais Diversos opened in September 2003 at the National Theatre D. Maria II, Lisbon, and won the competition for Young Artists of the Portuguese Arts and Ideas Club.

Tiago Guedes studied music at the Regional Academy of Tomar (Portugal) and then at the Dance Academy of Lisbon. He collaborated with RE.AL as an associate choreographer from 2003 to 2007. As a choreographer since 2001, Guedes has created the following works: A Show with an Announced Opening, October 2002; Trio, April 2005; Matrioska, January 2007; Ópera, July 2007; and Wonderful Things, February 2008. Guedes is resident choreographer at the Théâtre Le Vivat, Armentières, France, and at ZDB Gallery in Lisbon.

www.tiagoguedes.com