THE RIVER AND THE DEVIL, première 2024 (research 2022-2023)

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It is said that during colonial times, in the Bolivian Andean Plateau, the colonisers were speaking of the Desaguadero river as diabolical, as an evil body of water. By calling the river ‘the Devil,’ they aimed at transforming it into a place to be avoided, destroyed, and extracted. The accumulation of centuries of continuous destruction and extractivism resulted in the ongoing desertification of the Desaguadero river; the transformation of its body from water to salt. 

 

In The River and The Devil, Paula Almiron is the host of a choreographic reading space in which a circulation of words, sounds, gestures and objects embodies and imagines the ruins of a disappearing river. What kind of (life)forms can emerge in a ruin of salt? How can we collectively imagine the living world in an ongoing changing environment?  

The River and The Devil is a semi-fictional choreography in which the Devil appears as the river’s guardian. Can we learn from the Devil’s force as a tool for resilience? Where did the Devil go now that water has gone? 

 

Is the Devil in fact the ruin we’re left with?  

Going to the river was forbidden; but the people disobeyed and kept going…

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Concept, direction and performance: Paula Almiron

Dramaturgical advisers: Simon Asencio, Louise Vanneste, David Weber-Krebs 

Salt sculptures / visual artist: Florencia Almiron 

Sound design: Vica Pacheco

Artistic accompaniment: Wouter De Raeve

Special thanks to: Eliane Bertschi 

Residency support: wpZimmer, kunstencentrum BUDA, kunstenwerkplats, C-TAKT, La Bellone Maison de Spectacle, La Serre Arts Vivants (Montreal), CND Paris, SEN (Studio Etangs Noirs), Tenerife LAV, GC Het Huys, Meyboom Artist-run Spaces.

Production: Four-Thirty-One vzw 

Supported by: Flemish Government