Cheered lies (mentides aplaudides)

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informació obra


Sinopsi:

Peça que reflexiona sobre el món actual, on les fake news formen part d’aquest joc sobre veritats i mentides al voltant de la manipulació. Els quatre intèrprets es capbussen en un diàleg amb el món en què vivim per descobrir els punts essencials de diferents qüestions, manipulades i no manipulades. Amb ells emprenem un viatge pels temes més urgents de l’actualitat: xocs de civilitzacions, creences polítiques i ideològiques, pors, incerteses…

Panaíbra Gabriel Canda va néixer a Maputo (Moçambic). És un dels coreògrafs més influents d’Àfrica; reflexiona sobre les agitacions post-colonials del seu país amb una ambigüitat excepcional. Va estudiar teatre, dansa i música a Moçambic i Portugal i des de 1993 crea els seus propis projectes artístics. La seva obra s’ha presentat arreu del món i ha guanyat diversos premis. El 1998 va fundar CulturArte – Cultura e Arte em Movimento, el primer i únic espai de producció de dansa contemporània del seu país. Com a director artístic i coreògraf, Panaíbra se centra a impulsar i desenvolupar l’escena de dansa regional i local mitjançant creacions, performances i programes de formació.

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Crítica: Cheered lies (mentides aplaudides)

11/12/2022

Lies, lies, lies (and truth?)

per Alx Phillips

Cheered Lies is a performance piece about perception, although few these days appear to be cheering. It is, as prominent Mozambican choreographer and performer Paniabra Gabriel Canda explains, an exploration of persistent false ideas. Constructed or 'filtered' images of Africa and Africans are projected through phone technology; manipulations of language are slanted through translation, and ‘fake news’ is delivered through a mishmash of media clips. 

Fake news is a Trumpian term and those much-repeated ‘media narratives’ one of his blanket slogans. The technology widely-used in the piece is a US import. Yet, Canda suggests, all this is appropriated. The tech is not a new colonialism, but “just a tool”, and something that can be celebrated as an "individualising force in the reconstruction of a postcolonial African identity".

We jump through the centuries, from the scramble for Africa, to modern day selfies, with resonant performances. The piece includes a strong theatrical and musical component, with the inclusion of hip hop, and an enjoyable banana fight, plus found media materials from selective foreign news outlets.

Many things seem befitting, yet are only briefly spotlighted: the dominance of the dollar; the bizarre Rwanda deportation scheme conjured up in the UK – though it is unclear whether it is the scheme being criticised or perceptions of the African country itself. Swiping on, a clip appears in which someone claims that a campaign for contraception and abortion in Africa is, in fact, an attempt to reduce the population lest it rise up and resist. This worrying simplification appears momentarily, with no follow up: is it something being ridiculed or is it Africa’s apparent ‘truth’?

While the show proposes to combat false perceptions of the continent it offers little on navigating African reality. A vision of a pan-African future is laudable, yet it is one (high-speed trains and renewable energies) familiar in Europe. Beyond its exuberance and the calls to give Africa back control, there is an absence of any specific African truth, at least not one explored anywhere near in depth.