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Pedro Matias

Free Balling

Free Balling is a research about possession, care, collecting… choosing.
Inspired by the notion of a rite of passage, this investigation drifts through several tumultuous transitions we all have been part of: births, beginnings, endings, deaths; instants remembered and built within who we are in the current. Ritualised, these moments are intimately connected with objects, movements, bodies.
Together, object and performer create a childish, uncanny reality, an unorganised ritualistic celebration, a choreographed moaning. Three personas exploring the space, recalling the past, while looking forward. A shared journey in which we shift between ordinary and extraordinary.
Free Balling is about us, through me, by them.


Directed by Pedro Matias with Angelo Custodio and Arthur Guilleminot Production Driewieler Collectief

Bio
The collective was founded in 2010 by Pedro Matias and Angelo Custodio when they moved to Amsterdam. Willing to expand their collaborative work, Arthur joins the collective in 2014. Since then, this unexpected marriage has been developing processes embracing the expertise of each member, bringing a multidisciplinary and more intricate final work. The combination of their different cultural references and social backgrounds allowed the collective to become aware of the necessity of a more present social engagement in their practice. Creatively Driewieler Collectief develops an open process, expecting to merge the surrounding reality with their own, inspired in the contemporary reality, feeding from the current, the awkward, the outsider; a jump into a (extended) reality.

Pedro (Lisbon, 1984) explores in his work the relation between performer, object and physicality. By working in cooperation, Pedro has the possibility of amplifying his creations to a point of friction, building a dystopian atmosphere, a parallel alternative to the known reality. Deeply interested in playing with the perception of the viewer and in redefining the boundaries between audience and performers, Pedro is willing to explore the sensation and experience range within the art work. With a strong interactive component, the audience is often pushed to become a spontaneous participant, creating, together with the performers repetitive and obsessive actions, amplified and bended to an extreme.

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