MACBA Museu d ́Art Contemporani de Barcelona

Balé Literal is a tool of poetic resistance, an exhibition-dance turned into a living organism. It is a movement made up of a varied repertoire of dangling object-works, set in motion by a group of people orchestrated by the Brazilian artist Laura Lima (Minas Gerais, 1971).

Balé Literal was initially presented in June 2019, on a street corner in front of A Gentil Carioca, a gallery in Rio de Janeiro. This is the first time it has been shown in a museum. The larger space houses its choreographic mechanism, while the adjacent space operates as a backstage warehouse – a repository of artifacts ready to be moved into dance.

In the larger space, two teams activate the mechanism of the ballet and hang objects from threads. The movement is powered by the pedals of two bicycles, evoking the motion of a loom. With a soundtrack by Ana Frango Elétrico, lighting design by Andrea Capella, re-engineering by Yoann Saura, and the collaboration of Hangar, every rehearsal of this transmedia choreography is a performance, and each performance is unique.

Balé Literal is an exhibition-as-dance, a retrospective in motion by Laura Lima. The bestiary of assorted beings that make up the piece animates concepts developed by the artist over three decades. Paintings, textiles, masks, placards, poems, flying saucers, astronauts, umbrellas and other characters take part in this ritual dance, which invites us to practice new ways of seeing and moving in the museum. “If you move differently, you think differently,” says Lima.

The activation of Balé Literal involves the daily process of hanging, gathering and mobilising the objects.

Curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose