KVS

¿QUÉ PUEDE UN CUERPO? / WHAT CAN A BODY DO?

Shantì Vera & Melissa Herrada
WORK IN PROGRESS
Sat 23.11.2024 20:00
KVS, Brussels
KVS BOL
23.11.2024
20:00 - 20:40
Tickets

¿Qué puede un cuerpo? or What Can a Body Do? is the third part of the LEIB project. LEIB means "body" in Old German, but it is also a conjuration or spell originating from the mountains of southern Mexico. LEIB is a research project that seeks to decolonize knowledge through the body itself, defending the body in both a poetic and political sense.

The project consists of four parts: What Does a Body Desire? (2022), What Does a Body Resist? (2023), What Can a Body Do? (2024-), and What Does a Body Forget?. These questions weave together Nietzsche’s abstract philosophy with the knowledge of Mexican collectives searching for missing persons. This knowledge blurs the lines between empirical, mystical, and metaphysical experiences, between science and intuition, between technique, premonition, and Western knowledge.

¿Qué puede un cuerpo? serves as a spell for the return of all missing persons. Shantí Vera encountered the word LEIB while reading Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, discovering a connection between his family's practice of whispering to the dead and the work of search collectives in Mexico. After extensive research, he realized that the core of this inquiry lay in the sensitivity of his own body. Western knowledge often classifies such understanding as "ancestral," a term that diminishes its value, as this knowledge belongs to all of us—because we all have a body.

Summoning something to appear or happen is a deeply human activity. In a city like Brussels, discussing decolonization through lived practice is essential. Decolonizing our sensitivity allows us to feel, think, and ultimately understand others in new ways.

SHANTÍ VERA is a Mexican artist currently based in Berlin. He graduated with honors in Contemporary Dance from the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico, and earned a master's degree in Performing Arts & Visual Culture from the Universidad Castilla La Mancha and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain. Throughout his career, he has worked as a choreographer, dancer, director, teacher, body researcher, writer, and curator, presenting his creations in renowned institutions in Mexico and at festivals and venues in 22 countries across Europe and Latin America. Since 2007, he has been developing El Cuerpo Vacío, a laboratory focused on transforming thoughts into action, experimentation, and play across various fields of knowledge, with an emphasis on the body, thought, imagination, space, creation, and choreography.

His artistic work is a political commitment to the defense of the body. Since 2007, he has led the company CUATRO X CUATRO, and in 2009, he founded the 4X4 festival (now in its 14th edition). Both organizations provide spaces for experimentation, research, promotion, and exhibition of contemporary performing arts.

MELISSA HERRADA
is a Mexican choreographer and dancer based in Berlin. In 2014, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in contemporary dance from the Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlan, Mexico. In 2024, she completed her master's in choreography within the Arts Program at HZT in Berlin, the inter-university center for dance at the University of the Arts (UdK). Over the course of her career, she has presented work in ten countries. Since 2016, she has been a creative collaborator with the Mexican company CUATRO X CUATRO under Shantí Vera's leadership, and a participant in the 4x4 performing arts festival in Mexico. Recently, she received the International Collaboration Grant from the British Council (2021-2023) in partnership with the CASA Festival in London. For her latest project, she collaborates with visual artist Andrea Carillo, supported by the Magnum Foundation in New York and Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico.

CUATRO X CUATRO is a Mexican company founded in 2007 in Xalapa, Mexico. They develop interdisciplinary projects that explore the body from a Southern perspective (not geographically, but as an absent territory within dominant worldviews). They have presented their work in major cultural institutions in Mexico and 22 countries across Europe and Latin America. The company has received numerous awards and grants in Mexico, Spain, the UK, Switzerland, and Germany.

Credits

CUATRO X CUATRO CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAFIE, ONDERZOEK EN REGIE / CONCEPT, CHORÉGRAPHIE, RECHERCHE ET MISE EN SCÈNE / CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY, RESEARCH & DIRECTION Shantí Vera CO-CHOREOGRAAF / CO CHORÉGRAPHE / CO CHOREOGRAPHER Melissa Herrada ART DIRECTION Arturo Lugo (Tun Project) GELUIDSDRAMATURGIE / DRAMATURGIE DE SON / SOUND DRAMATURGY Manuel Estrella LICHTDRAMATURGIE / DRAMATURGIE DE LUMIÈRE / LIGHT DRAMATURGY Melissa Herrada DANSERS / DANSEURS / DANCERS Arturo Lugo, Melissa Herrada & Shantí Vera TEKST / TEXTE / TEXT Mirtha Luz Pérez Robledo & Daniela Rea FOTOGRAFIE / PHOTOGRAPHIE / PHOTOGRAPHY Paulina Cervantes (Maremoto Producciones) & Dieter Hatwig VIDEO / VIDÉO Fernando Frías (Maremoto Producciones) PRODUCTIE / PRODUCTION Cuatro X Cuatro