Migrant
The Migrant series begins in 2016, when performer Beatriz Provasi moves from Brazil to Denmark, and unfolds at the intersection of literature, performance, and visual arts.
Based on her own migrant experience and several trips through Europe, the artist creates a book of poetic diaries entitled O Tempo em que Morei na Mala (The Time I Lived in the Suitcase), in addition to a series of performances and artistic experiments.
Her research involves themes such as art in public spaces, urbanity, migration, displacement, wandering, nomadism, deterritorialization, non-belonging, existential jet lag, elastic borders, poetic cartographies, identity mobility, gender issues, hybridism, resilience, decoloniality, untranslatability, memory, and saudade.
Currently, she is dedicated to creating collage canvases using a variety of materials collected during her migrant journey. She is also preparing the publication of the book and is already outlining an exhibition project.
All Works in the Migrant Series
Cartography of Collected Things (DK, 2023-2024)
Work In Progress
Copenhagen, Denmark
Cartography of Collected Things (2023-2024) is a series of collage canvases by Beatriz Provasi, using a variety of materials collected on the artist's migrant journey: maps, expired documents, transport tickets, tickets and wristbands for entry to venues and events, museum maps and brochures, pamphlets, touristic magazines, playing cards, broken plates, rocks, photos, etc.
In the process of composition with the materials collected during her trips, using the maps of the visited destinations as her blank canvases, the artist displaces something. She rejects the role of the "suffering immigrant" and celebrates her own discovery of Europe, creating another place, in a kind of appropriation of the colonizer by the colonized. She invents her own Europe, changes its maps, draws other borders, adds her body and her Latin colors, creating other cartographies.
In total, around 15 collages will be produced, which will be included in the book O Tempo em que Morei na Mala (The Time I Lived in the Suitcase) and a multimedia exhibition.
The Wind's Harvest (DK, 2021)
Solo Performance
Inspired by a text by Eduardo Mariz for the collective performance Zephyrus Paradox from the group Acocoré
Copenhagen, Denmark
In the performance The Wind's Harvest (2021), Beatriz Provasi walks around the city, filling dozens of traditional Danish organic garbage bags with wind. Wind, one of the most abundant resources in Denmark, is not always celebrated. Here, it becomes a character almost alive—one that fights back, runs away, plays hide and seek, and even plays a song. In the end, it dances a ballet on the lake, sliding on the water like a beautiful swan. Returning to the streets after "living in the suitcase", Provasi performs a poetic reappropriation of the city.
The Time I Lived in the Suitcase (BR, 2019)
Theater-Performance Solo
Filming: Rodrigo Savastano and Mariana Salles
Support: Casa Sapucaia
Event: Aquarius Party, Casa Sapucaia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Time I Lived in the Suitcase (2019) is a theater-performance-installation spectacle created by Beatriz Provasi. It incorporates fragments from her journals in her book of the same name (in progress), video projections of the performance Homeless in Copenhagen (2017), objects collected during her residence in Denmark and trips around Europe, and many suitcases.
Homeless in Copenhagen (DK, 2017)
Solo Performance
Copenhagen, Denmark
Homeless in Copenhagen (2017) is a series of performances conducted by Beatriz Provasi over four days in September 2017 on the streets of Copenhagen. The work addresses the city's housing issue, a significant and widespread problem that largely affects immigrants.
In this performance, Provasi walks around the city carrying a large suitcase, stopping at symbolic spots that represent her arduous search for housing the previous year. She then opens the suitcase and fits her body inside, remaining there for a while.
-
1st day, 02/09: Nørreport Station, Vandkunsten (CPH Downtown Hostel) and Rådhuspladsen;
-
2nd day, 05/09: University of Copenhagen and Freetown Christiania
-
3rd day, 18/09: Rungsted Plads, Jagtvej 69 and University Housing Foundation
-
4th day, 21/09: Jægergade 16 and Peblinge Sø
Move (DK, 2017)
Solo Performance
Collaboration: David Sebastian Lopez Restrepo, Chuyia Chia and Mads Floor Andersen
Photos: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
International Performance Art Festival Body Landscapes 2017, Verdens Kultur Centret
Copenhagen, Denmark
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
By performer Beatriz Provasi; Photo: Sunniva Gudmundsdóttir Mortensen
Move (2017) was created by Beatriz Provasi during a performance workshop at the International Performance Art Festival Body Landscapes.
The action begins when the performer takes a city map from her pocket, drops it on the floor, and steps onto the small piece of paper, trying to balance herself without touching the floor. Using her toes, she unfolds a part of the map, seeking a new balance with a bit more space. She continues to unfold the map, experimenting with ways to balance herself and occupy the space with her body, little by little.
Once the map is fully open, she fits into a fetal position and draws routes on the map with a marker she carries in her pocket. Then she gets up and repeats the process, crossing the room from side to side.
All Paths Are My Path (ES/BR, 2017)
Simultaneous Collective Performance
Beatriz Provasi and Iván Lucas (ES) / Ana Paula Penna and Brenda Lua (BR)
Madrid, Spain / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The idea for the performance All Paths Are My Path (2017) was first shared by Beatriz Provasi with the collective Atrizes ou... (Actresses or...). Together, they elaborated the action to take place simultaneously in Brazil and Spain, during Provasi's first trip across Europe after moving to Denmark. Even though it was a group initiative, this performance is included in Provasi's Migrant series because it already shows some of the characteristics of her philosophical thinking behind these migrant works.
In this work, two duos perform simultaneous actions in Madrid and Rio, creating urban installations with rubber bands to delimit spaces. These "borders" are challenged by bodies that cross them in different ways, expand them, remodel them, and dissolve them. The audience is encouraged to take part in this "game". In Madrid, a group of children leave the nearby park to join the performers. Some play freely, while others keep asking for "the rules". But there are no rules.
At the end, balloons tied to the rubber bands are distributed to the audience. After popping the balloons, they find inside them notes with the message "Todos los caminos son mi camino" (All paths are my path).
Tragicomic Gondola Tour (IT, 2017)
Solo Performance
Gondola Tour
Venice, Italy
Tragicomic Gondola Tour (2017) is a simple action developed by Beatriz Provasi, enacting the joys and sorrows of being a solo traveler in what is considered one of the most romantic cities in the world, Venice.
The performer was amazed by the beauty of the city and its theatrical aura, like a peacock showing off. More theatrical than romantic, as she describes in her journals.
In this action, she parades through the city on a lonely gondola tour, wearing a Venetian mask with comedy and tragedy sharing the same face.