We can only observe the past. In each and every moment the present we are inhabiting becomes the past for somebody else. The same can be said in relation to the way our gaze meets the immensity of the universe or the personal histories. The distance travelled by the gaze to meet its object turns everything into past. How is history becoming movement, how is a theme or an interest becoming movement, what can be uttered through movement and what procedures to use are the issues at the core of the “Lucky Dust” performance, created by Vera Mantero, Mădălina Dan and Ștefania Ferchedău, in a Romanian-Portuguese coproduction by The Institute of the Present and O Rumo do Fumo.

“Lucky Dust” is triggered by a selection writings and performances of the Portuguese choreographer Vera Mantero, dating mainly from the late 1980s and the 1990s, together with recent texts written during the working process in 2022 and 2023, and has generated two solos performed by Mădălina Dan și Vera Mantero.

The performance is presented in Timișoara on 28 and 29 June at FABER, Multifunctional Hall, in connection with the European Dancehouse Network meeting organised by AREAL, and in Bucharest on 2 and 3 July, at /SAC Malmaison. It includes the documentary “Let’s talk about it now,” 1999, by Margarida Ferreira de Almeida, recorded during the Culturgest retrospective of Vera Mantero’s work from 1989 to 1989.

IP—The Institute of the Present is a research and an artist and theory resource platform in the field of visual and performing culture conceived by Ștefania Ferchedău and Alina Șerban.

The “Uncensored Act” programme, which features the exhibition, dwells on the idea of community, collective action, collaboration and solidarity in the spirit of shared values, with a route that is triggered by the history of Timișoara in the 1989 context, connected regionally and internationally through the proposed artistic content.

Photo: Mădălina Dan and Vera Mantero performing in “Lucky Dust”, photo by Andrei Vuia

The event is organised in the frame of the projects “Uncensored Act” and “COLLEGIUM. A Possible History of the Invisible”.

Partners: FABER, O Rumo do Fumo, / SAC Malmaison

Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. 
The project does not necessarily represent the standpoint of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN cannot be held liable for the content of the project or the manner in which the outcomes of the project may be used. These shall devolve entirely on the beneficiary of the financing.