This exposition presents and explores all the creative process related to the performance Espelho meu, premiered in March 2017, in Porto, Portugal. From its assumptions and creative contextualization, we deepen our reflection and explore a possible outcome materialized in this work. It's the materialization of a creative thought, a creative process, into the artistic gesture of the performer. We believe that the creation of new performances is the only effective way to develop the contemporary performative scene. New performances that raise questions and multiple layers of understanding promoting new visions of the world and new possibilities. In this paper, we will briefly discuss the role of improvisation in the process of creating a vocal gesture that externalizes an inner thought, the role of the body and the energy of the performance, the non-imposed but important interaction with the audience, the relevance of the text as semantical and sound object, the choice of the concept mirror and its symbolical impact, the cross paths between artistic practice and technology and the artistic exploration of the performance after its physical existence in time, consolidated in the performative resonance as a creative tool to stretch time and to provocate the ephemerality of performance.

ESPELHO MEU: Text

The concept of mirroring goes through the entire process of creating the work including its text. The questioning of the mirror and an elaboration on the authenticity of its reflex took part in the construction of the text that accompanied the musical and sonorous development of the piece.

Espelho meu, espelho meu, quem espelhas tu que não eu?

Quando olhamos para um espelho... é como se nos desdobrássemos noutro ser que estranhamente se parece com a imagem que temos de nós próprios... Não fossem os espelhos e nunca nos teríamos em todo... em espelho... ali... (smile that becomes a laughter)... ali (the performer points to the statue in front of him).

Será aquele espelho verdadeiro? Porque será outro espelho mais verdadeiro do que este? Ali... é incrível como sai de dentro, de dentro de nós, e se põe ali, em frente, escancarado.

Como uma luz apontada que se consome em visibilidade, acariciada no momento em que se reflete no meu rosto e me dá uma corporeidade que se manifesta num corpo, claro está, de corpo que é. Ali...

Invertido, convertido, consumido por quem vê de dentro para fora e se questiona sobre se, na Suazilândia, os espelhos refletem do mesmo modo ou se, por alquimia, projetam de maneira outra o que a luz pensa refletir de um nós, eu, que não tem conhecimento prévio de si mesmo, como um todo que, afinal, acaba por não se completar do outro lado... precisamente por isso, por ser outro! É um salto que nos despega daqui e nos carrega para um outro aqui (zinho ou zão)!

We kept the text in Portuguese because it is the original text used during the performance. Here’s the translation into English:

Mirror, mirror, who do you mirror that not me?

When we look at a mirror ... it is as if we unfold ourselves in another being that strangely resembles the image we have of ourselves ... If it were not the mirrors, we would never have ourselves in total ... mirrored... there ... there…

Is that mirror real? Is another mirror truer than this one? There… It's amazing how it comes from inside, from within us, and it stands there, straight ahead, wide open.

Like a light that consumes itself in visibility, caressed when it is reflected in my face and gives me a corporeity that manifests itself in a body, of course, of body that is. There...

Inverted, converted, consumed by those who see from the inside out, and wonder whether in Swaziland the mirrors reflect in the same way or if, by alchemy, they project differently what the light thinks to reflect of an us, an I, who have no previous knowledge of itself, as a whole that, after all, ends up not completing itself on the other side… precisely for being another! It’s a leap that takes us off here and carries us to another here (small or big).

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ESPELHO MEU: Text