Encruzilhada

In September 2024, I started creating a performance entitled Encruzilhada, based on my understanding of carrego colonial (colonial burden), a concept elaborated on by Brazilian pedagogue Luiz Rufino in his work Pedagogia das Encruzilhadas (Pedagogy of the Crossroads). Encruzilhada concentrates on the production of an ebó (offer, sacrifice) to Exu. The ebó, in this case, are bean seeds that are planted and watered in a cross-shaped soil placed on the top of a scroll of white paper where I, together with three audience members, write the poem Debaixo D´Água, Coberta de Terra (Underwater, Covered in Earth). The poem deals with a womxn/creature of the sea who, one day, decides to leave her aquamarine realm to inhabit dry land. It will be published in the issue #3 of the journal Matter – The Materiality of Artistic Research in Theatre and Performance in December 2024.In Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Candomblé or Umbanda, ebó can be understood as an offering to a deity, necessary to restore order and maintain harmony and balance with the natural world. It reinforces the notion that everything in the natural world is connected; like the cells of an organism working in unison for a common purpose: life. Nothing thrives in a vacuum and sacrifice is for the sake of the whole.Alongside the performance, I read the poem that had previously been copied onto the paper, while a series of images depicting the geographies described in the poem are projected on a screen behind me.