SARA MONTALVÃO & DAVID NEGRÃO | Loop Mental

Keywords

Synopsis

LOOP MENTAL emerged in 2020 during the very first pandemic confinement, which led us both to wonder about how the human brain designs these mental labyrinths where memory and illusion come together or clash against each other. The lack of perspective in the case of many people, including especially many artists that saw their (our) works and professional struggles being cancelled created a sort of shocked numbness mixed with the natural urge to create and react. This is what inspired this patchwork of visual imprints that reflect how the present lives in this limbo of memory and illusion – true or false , real or constructed – between the concrete and what is imagined. Thus a confined body in need and eager travels through what we attempt to draw as a sort of a brain design in its looping modes reflecting and creating mirrors of experiences and feelings through body and image. This is why this is presented in an interactive video because the choices you make with what you see and feel, remember or create, lead you to different pathways.

THIS IS AN INTERACTIVE VIDEO. PLAY: https://video.eko.com/v/Vo1jZx?autoplay=true

This project had funding from GEPAC – MC, administrative support by Apuro Associação Cultural. We greatly appreciate the support of Cultivamos Cultura that allowed Sara and David to be together working in artistic residency.

Special thanks to Pavel Tavares and Manuel Maria Almeida.

Artist Bio

Sara Montalvão graduated in Anglo-American Literary and Cultural Studies by FLUP in 2008. Afterwards she followed professional training in acting at the Studio of Augusto Fernandes in 2009, at Buenos Aires. In 2013 she followed professional and advanced training in creation and choreographic composition in contemporary dance (FAICC) with Companhia Instável, at Porto. In 2018 Sara concludes Post-Graduate Studies in Contemporary Dance (ESMAE/Teatro Municipal do Porto).

Sara had intensive training with many different choreographers , being strongly influenced by David Zambrano, Edivaldo Ernesto, Hofesh Schechter, Francesco Scavetta, Hélder Seabra, Rakesh Sukesh, Luke Jessop, Yeknom Co. She has always been strongly influenced by puppetry, martial arts, urban and traditional dances. Sara Montalvão created solo performances and in collaboration. She has worked with Mafalda Deville, José Artur Campos, Diletta Bindi, Miguel Moreira, Teresa Alpendurada, Edgar Pêra, Ana Bacalhau, CiM/VoArte, Teatro do Mar, and others. Currently she is based in Portugal but naturally itinerant and endlessly thirsty of deepening her creative mind and her means of expression – via her body and mind through others and with others. www.saramontalvao.com

David Negrão’s professional career began in 2001, when he obtained a qualification in the 2D / 3D Animation Course at ETIC. requested as a freelancer in 3D animation, in the areas of Cinema and Advertising. He developed his work in several animation studios, as a 3D generalist, in addition to 3D animation works, he began to participate in multiple Video Mapping projects and interactive installations for festivals around the world .Currently, he is involved in the use and creation of new tools that allow exploring the technical and creative potentialities of interactivity and contiguities between the real and digital planes. www.davidnegrao.com