Performance
Raúl Maia and Thomas Steyaert
[Austria / Portugal]
The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin
© Maia/Steyaert
"The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin" is the third stage performance by the creator-duo Raúl Maia and Thomas Steyaert. As in all of their works the artistic practice that is “non-representational physical communication” is the source of all developed materials with the main goal of developing forms of communication/sustainable physical language between performers without the use of recognizable gestures or movements. Each new project reformulates and rethinks the artistic potential of the practice in order to create a new artistic discourse and a new aesthetic experience.
This third stage performance introduces objects as mediators of the communicative act between performers. Objects become animated as a consequence of physical dialogues. Maia and Steyaert communicate confined to static or restricted physical configurations that appear to impose a new form of language between these performers. The sum of the different physical languages reveals an experience that is full of absurdities, where the random and the pre-defined co-exist in just one language.
Raúl Maia and Thomas Steyaert
Raúl Maia is a Portuguese artist residing in Austria for around 12 years and has recently returned to Portugal. His work is based on the concept and practice of “physical communication systems” between interpreters and their consequent reformulation in the form of an artistic object. His artistic activity is divided between his own creations, artistic collaboration with Belgian artist Thomas Steyaert and his work as a performer. His work has been shown in several theaters and festivals such as ImpulsTanz (At), Xplore dance Festival (Ro), Potsdam Tanzfabrik (De), Idans Istanbul (Tur), Tanzquartier (At), WUK (At) and Brut (At) between others. As a performer he highlights himself in his collaboration with última vez/Wim Vandekeybus, Anna MacRae, Tino Sehgal, Sofia Dias and Vitor Roriz, Fanni Futterknecht, Mike O'Connor and Paul Wenninger.
Thomas Steyaert, Belgian artist active in the visual and performing arts, lives in Sarajevo in Bosnia. Collaborated with Última vez/Wim Vandekeybus, KVS (Royal Theater of Flanders), East West Theater Company/Haris Pasovic (BIH), Cirk La Putyka / Rosta Novak (CZ), BNP Zenica (Bosnian National Theater, Zenica - BIH) and CHVE, leader of the Belgian sludge-metal band Amenra. In collaboration with artist Raúl Maia he is developing a long-term project that explores the artistic practice they call “unrepresentative physical communication”. Within this same context Thomas develops his individual work in several European countries as well as outside Europe and he recently founded the “moving island” collective which brings together artists based in Sarajevo (BIH) dedicated to artistic creation with a social dimension. He is also dedicated to teaching, painting, and the creation of sound art.
