Permanent Creation: On the Other Side of the Atlantic is a collaborative and durational performance by artists Snyder Moreno Martín (Bogotá, Colombia) and Eduardo Cachucho (Johannesburg, South Africa). It was performed over a period of seven hours – the time difference between the respective countries – at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in January 2018 as part of the For Once programme.

What happens to a performance, a body, an idea, or a gesture when explored over the course of seven straight hours? Back in June of 2017, Cachucho and Martin began their collaboration on a residency in São Paulo. In the months that followed, they continued to explore this collaboration, physically separated by a distance of 12 000 kms. Permanent Creation: On the Other Side of the Atlantic is the result of the two artists meeting in the same physical space and building up a free-spirited and durational performance.

The artists restrict their performance to the space of The Centre, although their explorations traverse the media of text, voice, dance, sound and more. At times, they action this out in a tentative duet – taking their lead from one another, batting an idea or a gesture back and forth between them and seeing what form it takes, which way it goes. Other times, they explore in isolation, working away on their individual pursuits, but always folding these explorations back into the greater performance.

A sign posted outside the entrance invites audiences to “move freely” and “spend the time you like”. Throughout the performance, audience members drift in and out, some walking around the space, others simply sitting and watching Cachucho and Martin as they work. In this way, the audience member becomes an active observer and participant in the performance, be it through direct interaction, or through the subtle presence of an external eye, another player in the room. This is perhaps most strongly felt when children enter the space, more actively engaging with the props and the activity of the room.

It is through the mining of multiple activities and actions over such an extended period that Permanent Creation: On the Other Side of the Atlantic finds its stride and generates its material – both physical and figurative – be it through the endless exchange of words, or the quietly affecting act of balancing precariously on a set of bricks, holding one another, working with another and riffing on the shared presence.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

CONCEPTUALISERS & PERFORMERS | Snyder Moreno Martín & Eduardo Cachucho
PROJECT MANAGER | Shruthi Nair
STAGE MANAGER | Hayleigh Evans & POPArt Productions