A Body of Work - Selection of works by Carlota dos Santos

a body of work

b y Carlota dos Santos

And, here, everything starts. The “click” moment, as I call it, happens, and I feel it.

The chaos emerges, and things start flowing, - a chaos that creates a rhythm.

There is nature. Human nature, mother nature.

There are materials, loads of materials, and a significant amount of each one.

And there is a new pattern, - created by inhales, exhales, flows, wind, movement, materials cracking and smashing, - the pattern of being.

Carlota dos Santos is a Portuguese director, choreographer, visual and performance artist based in London. Coming from a background in dance, fashion, and fine art the artist’s work exists in the spaces between theatre, visual art, and performance art.

The human being, both as a medium and research tool, is situated at the core of Carlota’s work. There is a celebration of the human body within itself and the various contexts it is inserted in, through a perpetual process of investigation into human nature. The artist is both fascinated and conflicted by the liminal space between right and wrong: what makes a human being beautiful, but also what makes them a monster.

Carlota’s practice searches for a choreographic language that prioritises the real as a process, with an inclination towards endurance and repetition. Materiality and physicality are stretched and explored through animate and inanimate bodies present in her work, and large quantities of materials are usually brought to the artist’s live practice. Carlota’s work is brought to life as it exists, through a state of revelatory intimacy, where the real is made real.

Some of the artist’s work includes Un.being (2020), Absent Matter (2020), There once I was,There I will always be (2021), A Thousand Shoes (2021), Tempo (2022) in collaboration with Cornelis Joubert, Porto Seguro (2023), and Table Manners: No1 as part of a performance collective (2024).

The artist has recently graduated with a master’s degree in Performance Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins, in London while challenging the boundaries of her artistic practice as the artistic director of the THE LAB.YRINTH (2019), - a project born in Porto that encourages an encounter between art and fashion.

performances / exhibitions THE LAB.YRINTH x IHG, collaborative installation at THE LAB.YRINTH physical store, Porto PT – May 2023 When you are looking at me, by Diweilong Shi, group performance, Studio Theatre at Central Saint Martins, London UK – April 2023 Porto Seguro, by Carlota dos Santos, creation, direction, and choreography, Platform Theatre, London UK – March 2023 Macbeth, Act 1 to 5, by Kenny Lai, group performance, first witch role, Platform Theatre, London UK – March 2023 Memory, by Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan’s, group performance, Studio Theatre at Central Saint Martins, London UK – February 2023 And these shoes will be my body, video performance, Detritus Live Art at Tension Fine Art Gallery, London UK – November 2022 Tempo, Collaborative performance with Cornelis Joubert, Platform Theatre, London UK – November 2022 Macbeth – Act 1, by Kenny Lai, first witch role, Platform Theatre, London UK – November 2022 Terrain, direction, PROF, Gerês PT – April 2022 Oh Bitch, you’re Weary, duet, Crypt Theatre, London UK – March 2022 Fluxus, duet, Space for Fiction, Berlin GE – March 2022 Cluster Photography and Print, solo performance, Oxo Tower, London UK – March 2022 OPSIS, site-specific public performance, Kings Cross Park, London UK – December 2021 What is the ground, solo performance, Slash Arts Boat Gallery, London, UK – November 2021 Humanism, group exhibition, solo video performance, The Holy Art Gallery, Athens, GR – September 2021 A Thousand Normals, solo performance, Tension Fine Art, London, UK – August 2021 Utopia, virtual group exhibition, solo video performance, The Holy Art Gallery, London, UK – July 2021 Final, not Over – again, solo performance, Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London, UK – May 2021 Corpo, Oficina Cobalto, photographic documentation of a solo performance, Porto, PT – May 2021 SELL-OUT, Windows Gallery, Central Saint Martins, April & May 2021

A Thousand Shoes Residency, solo research project and performance, St Luke’s Community, London UK – March to May 2021 Homeward Bound, solo performance, Alexandra Park, London, UK – November 2020 I promise you, solo performance, MA Interim Show, Apiary Studios, London, UK – March 2020 Big Space Exhibition, solo performance, The Street, Central Saint Martins, UAL, London, UK – February 2020 Mind the Mind Gaps, solo performance, 202 Gallery, Central Saint Martins, UAL, London, UK – February 2020 TATE EXCHANGE Sale with Central Saint Martins, Tate Modern, London, UK – January 2020

solo exhibitions / shows A Thousand Shoes – Entre live performance, Haggerston Park, London, UK – May 2021 Porto Seguro, solo creation, Platform Theatre, London UK – March 2023

nominations / awards And these shoes will be my body, solo performance, MullenLowe NOVA Awards Nominated, 2021 And these shoes will be my body, solo performance, Maison/0 This Earth Awards Shortlisted, 2021 ENTRE, solo creation performed with dancer Sara Gil, MullenLowe NOVA Awards Nominated, 2021 ENTRE, solo creation performed with dancer Sara Gil, Maison/0 This Earth Awards Shortlisted, 2021 Un.being, solo performance, The Holy Art Gallery, Utopia exhibition shortlisted, 2021

features Living Body (2020), solo performance, featured on Au Courant Vol 5 issue “On Reflection”.

Available at https://www.aucourantstudio.com/store/Au-Courant-Vol-05-p183968709 Un.being (2020), solo performance, featured on @theholyartgallery Instagram page, August 2021.

Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/CSG6_jRt_CN/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Between the Between (2020), video performance, featured on NO ISSUE, Issue N.0. May 2021.

Available at https://www.no-issue.com/inhabited-environments Portuguese Women Artists Instagram account feature, @portuguese_women_artists, March 2021.

Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/CMAU7RwFnFO/?utm_medium=copy_link To heal (2020), solo performance, featured on Central Saint Martins Instagram page, @csm_news, March 2020.

Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/B9jwZV_Aq5f/?utm_medium=copy_link

PLATFORM THEATRE

PORTO SEGURO

DIRECTED by

08 03 23 08 PM

CarlOta dos SANTOS

Porto Seguro was a one-off stage performance that existed in the fragile space between the speakable and the unspeakable.

The piece attempted to blur the boundaries of Dance-Theatre, Fine Art, and Performance Art. To watch the full performance please follow the link below: https://vimeo.com/carlotadossantos/portoseguro?share=copy

Content warning: Reference to sexual abuse, child abuse, mental disorder.

Videography by Pablo Temboury Video Editing by Carlota dos Santos and Inês Araújo

PORTO SEGU RO - POSTERS’ DESIGN‘ G rap h i c D e s i g n by C arl ota d os S antos . P hotog rap hy by Inês A raú j o

PORTO

SEGURO

Porto Seguro is a one-off stage performance that exists in the fragile space between the speakable and the unspeakable.

The piece attempts to blur the boundaries of Dance-Theatre, Fine Art, and Performance Art.

Content warning:

Reference to sexual abuse, child abuse, mental disorder.

CREDITS: direction Carlota dos Santos set design Carlota dos Santos sound design Hyun Jang light design Sanli WANG shadow design Hyun Jang stage management Wenfei Jia costume design Sally Yeung, Grace Carolan costume design assistance Matthew Howard play writing Carlota dos Santos, Celine Clark photography & videography Inês Araújo graphic design Carlota dos Santos special thanks to Athina Vahla, Pete Brooks, Oleg Mirochnikov, Juqi Chen, Dou Dou, Pablo Temboury, Shouan Chiang, Inês Santos, Dimitrios Coumados, Faust Peneyra, Luke Cunningham, Michael Breakey, Michael Ste. Croix

PORTO SEGU RO - P R OGR AMME G rap h i c D e s i g n by C arl ota d os S antos . P hotog rap hy by Inês A raú j o

CAST:

Celine Clark

Cornelis Joubert

Georgie Earnshaw

Itching Tian

Kenny Lai

Luca Demetriou

Nefeli Kentoni

Tomio Shota

Yagmur Taçar

PORT O S EG U R O S O U N D C U ES . S O U N D DESIGN BY HYUN JANG

PORTO SEGU RO - COSTU ME DESIGN P hotog rap hy by S hou an C hi ang

COSTUME DESIGN . S A LLY YEU N G , G RA CE C A R O L A N C OS TUME D ESIGN AS S I S T A N CE . M AT T H EW H O W A R D

PORTO SEGU RO - MON OL OGUE Wri tten by C arl ota d os S antos R esearched and d evel op ed w i th C el i ne C l ark

P O RTO SEGU RO - NARRATIVE/ SCENES DESCRIPTION

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

P O RTO S E GU RO - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Ju sti n A tki ns

Tempo

Tempo was a collaborative exploration into the role of time when it comes to a memory. The performance piece was co-developed, co-directed, and co-performed with Cornelis Joubert.

Eight-hundred kilograms of top soil were brought and installed on stage.

The work had a duration of 15 minutes.

TEMPO - PERFORMANCE SET-UP P hotog rap hy by S hou an C hi ang

T E M P O - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by S hou an C hi ang

T E M P O - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by S hou an C hi ang

T E M P O - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by S hou an C hi ang

T E M P O - SHOW’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by S hou an C hi ang

Bodies of Rhythms, video performance. London, April 2021

BODIES OF RHYTHMS

All I can feel are these shoes as sort of living creatures.

As bodies that perform as much as my vulnerable human body does.

And we do perform together, as uncanny as it may sound.

Shoes. A thousand shoes.

Bodies. Movement.

Pain. Sound. Scent.

And there is a pattern. A pattern created by rhythms of wood heels, rubber and plastic soles.

A pattern created by various weights and gravities.

A pattern created by the rhythms of time and space.

And these rhythms differ, as my body performs. As it reinvents itself.

Bodies of Rhythms was a durational performative exercise, performed and documented by myself, as part of the A Thousand Shoes Residency.

The piece that merely started as an exercise, later became a solo moment between one thousand shoes and one human body, between one thousand diverse bodies of different natures and rhythms, and myself.

One thousand of shoes were piled up in a form of a mountain, a form itself that was the starting point for various experimentations throughout this residency project, and from there repetitive patterns of steps and shoes falling started to emerge.

The piece unfolded a reflection on the concepts of time and space, by enabling the creation of both a physical and, later, a digital space of dynamics and sounds created by the performative relationship between the human body and those shoes.

As the shoes kept filling in the negative spaces in the room, the rhythms started to fade out.

Walking in the studio became more and more challenging, as stepping through the tiny empty spaces in between shoes became barely possible.

The experience in the room on the actual day was quite intense and hard to translate postperformance, so I attempted to provide a digital and fictional performative space with the documentation material. To do so, I created a video with increased visual and audio speed in order to enhance the dynamics of sound, movement and composition within the space. In this way, the transformation of the space is emphasised, as it happens full-length in a shorter period of time.

Watch the full work at http://www.carlotados.com/bodiesofrhythms/

ENTRE, live performance. London, May 2021

ENTRE

My balance plays me.

Sometimes I can barely stand. But strangely, I enjoy that.

Right at this moment, I am simply letting my body move.

The wind is quite strong, so we fall together.

I feel the unbalanced balance that my shoes bring to me.

There is another body. Human.

We play together. And balance plays us.

A thousand shoes. A thousand other bodies.

So we keep each other balanced. In such a perfectly unbalanced place.

ENTRE was a three-hours long live performance, that took place at Haggerston Park, in London, on May 4th, as part of the A Thousand Shoes residency. The piece was developed and directed by me, and later performed alongside the dancer Sara Gil. The Portuguese word “entre”, exists in the form of a verb, as to welcome someone to enter somewhere, or in the form of a preposition, as in between two things. In this context, the title entailed to convey the word’s double meaning by attempting to encourage the audience to join the playground of shoes and interact as they feel, and by exploring the spaces in between both performers and within the one thousand shoes throughout the park.

Having the presence of the dancer Sara in this piece was quite relevant as, I believe, it blurred the boundaries between the worlds of Fine Art and Performing Arts, bringing Contemporary Art and Contemporary Dance together in a non-staged performance piece. The development process was quite spontaneous and experimental, as both Sara and myself explored and challenged the materiality of the shoes and the physical space without any structured rehearsal. The same happened during the moment of the performance itself, as our bodies performed individually and independently as they felt to, and spontaneously, towards the end, they started interacting and challenging each other.

Both Sara and myself were wearing identical white poplin shirts with balloon sleeves, which became a quite strong performative element of the piece as the silhouette of the garments allowed dynamic and structure to the movement. Also, the oversize design and the fabric of the shirt worked together with the element of air, and taking into consideration that the day was extremely windy, both elements enabled the dressing piece to perform, inflating and deflating, as it was breathing itself.

As in all durational pieces, there was a transformation in the space during the performance. The thought of bringing one thousand of shoes to a public park in East London felt as frightening as fascinating. Performing in nature, in an outdoor and public space means that we cannot control anything, and that is the magic of it. We performed and so the audience, the physical space, the shoes, and the whole natural environment.

The live piece was digitally translated into a compiled 27 minutes long video documentation.

Watch the full work at http://www.carlotados.com/entre/

Bodies of Rhythms, video performance. London, April 2021

AND THESE SHOES WILL BE MY BODY

A thousand shoes. A mountain.

As I climb it, I fall into it. I painfully immerse in confinement.

A confinement in the form of shoes.

Barefoot I am. And barefoot I stand.

A thousand shoes. A collapsed mountain.

These shoes wear my body.These shoes will be my body.

And confined in my own body I will be.

And these shoes will be my body was a one-to-one, twenty-three minutes long live performance piece, watched and documented by the only viewer in the room.

As the piece happened, both the space and the body went through a process of transformation, physically and emotionally. This one-to-one work was particularly painful and exhausting as it entailed a long and continuous process of an intense immersion into a mountain shape of a thousand shoes of the most various types of heels and materials, where the level of challenge and pain differed accordingly to the placement of the body.

During the time of the performance feelings of claustrophobia, incarceration, intense pain, and muscle exhaustion were quite strong. There was a constant need to try and relax my muscles as much as possible so my body could more easily adapt to the space, as if we were referring to some flexible material. In moments of frustration, a lot of muscle strength was required in order to push the shoes away from the body and create enough space. Among all these intense emotions, there was a fascinating feeling of liberation every time a tiny little part of my body could release itself from this enormous body of shoes, as it could breath again.

As my body got slowly immersed into the mountain of shoes, both the human body and the thousand shoes came into being as one single entity, in this profound interdependent relationship.

They became one as they inhaled, exhaled, moved and adapted together. They reinvented themselves in the form of one unified body.

The performance was digitally translated in video, with its original duration.

Watch the full piece at http://www.carlotados.com/andtheseshoeswillbemybody/

Heeled Body. performance photography,120mm colour film. London, May 2021

HEELED BODY

Five-hundred pairs of shoes.

A thousand bodies.

Bodies of various sizes, genders, shapes.

Bodies made of fragility.

A thousand of vulnerable bodies.

Bodies that are as strong as delicate.

As autonomous as dependent.

As broken as healed.

Yet, not as fleeting as my heeled body.

Heeled Body was a performative exercise that was explored and developed as part of the A Thousand Shoes residency.

During the experiment, ten individual shoes were displayed horizontally on the floor, with more or less spaces in between them, as an attempt to achieve a sort of body shape. The shoes were selected based on physical features such as heels shapes and heights, as this would be a key performative element for the exercise.

Balance, stability and strength were continuously developed and challenged during this resilient exercise, as having my whole body weight distributed and balanced through only ten heels sounded much simpler than it really was.

As we stand vertically, we stay still in two supporting legs, two supporting feet, and so two supporting shoes, that support an entire body. And from this starting point we may move, we may dance, we may find our point of balance. It feels so effortless that I needed this experience to remind me how gravity affects our own body and how important it is to really use it in order to discover new points of balance and movement.

In this experiment, my two supporting legs were replaced by ten supporting heels, and I attempted to stay still, by standing above the floor, lying on top of those heels, feeling the balance resulted from the performative relationship between my human body and those shoes. And that feeling of balance was an instant, that was immediately suspended by a sensation of fragility and vulnerability present in both the human and the shoes bodies.

The whole process was documented in one single image, the medium format colour film shown, due to the immediacy of the moment itself. The piece came into being during the time of the exposure, which was the moment of the performance itself, and it continued to live once the film was revealed.

There one I was,There I will always be, video performance. London, January 2021

T HERE ONCE I WAS, THERE I WILL ALWAYS BE

There once I was.

In this place where breathing felt like claustrophobia, yet, claustrophobia breathed.

Repression smelled like freedom, yet, freedom felt as strangely unbreathable as it breathed.

Moving felt as I was still, yet, stillness moved as the movement came into being.

Balance was constantly imbalanced, yet, unbalance was delicately balanced in.

Living felt deadly, yet, dying felt refreshingly alive.

In this place there was home, yet, home felt homeless.

Silence was loud, yet, noises were quiet.

Mirrors were illusions of wider and farther places, yet, not farther enough.

The idea of living in a coffin was tremendously scary, yet, it still felt like a shelter.

In this place I could not feel anything, yet, I was feeling so much.

There once I was, there I will always be.

There once I was, there I will always be was a twenty-three minutes long performance piece, recorded in the lift of the building where I live at, during the third national lockdown in England, on February 20th.

One thousand of red carnations were individually placed on top of two 39x56cm wooden boards, resulting in a little and narrow garden created within the enclosed space of the lift. The sitespecific work depicted a space of challenge, survival and enclosed movement.

Bodies of different natures performed together: the human body and the 1000 carnations bodies, all of these being carried up and down by the lift’s body itself. Different dynamics and intensities of movements were performed as the weight, texture, and components of each element in the space were diverse.

Nature was brought into an indoors context. The fragile carnations were moving quite delicately, as classical dancing bodies, simply moving by the wind created by the lift’s doors opening and closing. The human body was moving more or less fluently, accordingly to its level of balance, that was conditioned by the quantity and placement of the carnations, as well as the movement and instability of the lift itself.

The lift was moving up and downwards, which enabled two very different sensations towards my body: the sensation of being pushed up, and the sensation of falling down, challenging the concepts of balance and movement in such context.

There once I was, there I will always be existed in a place between binaries.

Watch the full work at http://carlotados.com/thereonceiwasthereiwillalwaysbe/

The caring and conditioning process of the 1000 carnations, in the work There once I was,There I will always be

P E R F ORMANCE’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION P hotog rap hy by Farrah Li

Absent Matter, two-hours live performance: photographic documentation . London, November 2020

ABSENT MATTER

What is the relationship between the human body and footwear itself? Can shoes exist without the human body?

Absent matter was a two-hours performance piece about vulnerability, fragility, co-dependency and struggle, which attempted to explore the shoe itself beyond its function. The materiality of each shoe was challenged during the piece, as bodies that perform, bodies of rhythms.

The piece depicted a space where the real and the surreal coexisted, where shoes became bodies and the human body became somehow objectified; a space where trauma performed between physical sensations, breathes, weaknesses, imbalance and deliriousness. Bodies were celebrated in their fragility and the factor of attraction for gravity became crucial as both the weight of the human body and the shoes challenged each other in a very internal and interdependent relationship.

As the piece was brought into being, the level of challenge was continuously increased.

The dress worn was part of the work itself as it was designed and made in order to be a performative element, rather than a decorative one. One-hundred and thirty-two strings were meticulously sewn to the collar of the dress, and later, as the performance happened, each one of them was individually attached to each shoe.

Sixteen pairs of shoes, thirty-two shoes in total, were displayed throughout the corner of the room. The act of attaching each string of the dress to each string of the shoe almost felt like a moment of delirium, a moment where all the elements external to the performance became unnoticeable as the strings performed together as an entangled web. As the entanglement increased, the relationship between the human body and the shoes became more intense, exploring the concept of ownership in such a context.

There are moments that cannot be translated in video, and I believe this piece was one of them.

A photographic image was the format I considered to be the most truthful when documenting the work. As the viewer is not able to see what preceded and succeeded the moment of the capture, the work speaks for itself through one eternalised moment, becoming other than it already was.

Un.being, photographic documentation from live performance at Unit 1 Gallery . London, May 2021

ABSENT MATTER

Un.being is a 10-15 minutes live performance piece that depicts the challenge between the human body and the weight and density of a massive hand knitted jumper.

Five-hundred black wool yarns were knitted into a 25 kilograms, 4 meters width per 3 meters height jumper, which size is constantly adapted and stretched as the weight of the jumper performs on the human body.

The process of hand knitting was as performative as the live piece itself as the weight, the density, the thickness and the increasing lenght and challenges attached to it dictated the whole work, physically and conceptually.

Un.being dealt with subjects of powerlessness, resilience, and survival.

Watch the full work at http://www.carlotados.com/unbeing/

thank you.