Art Happens

World premiere
06 – 08 July 2023
Festival de Marseille

A dance group, which is more than the sum of its parts, moves through Brazil, a country reborn from the ashes. The group observes their many deaths and lives in the course of a lifetime, like a snake that sheds its dead skin. Birthdays come, celebrations of life that never measure up to it. A balloon bursts during a child’s party, which is a fright in the middle of the celebration. The sudden end of something beautiful, like an implosion, a shock.

Would a nation choose to walk towards its own destruction? How do the forces that make us up, fight with each other? Cia. Suave and Alice Ripoll have brought questions about these crossroads to the scene. They wonder how much an artistic encounter can change the course of a life. What happens when a society chooses barbarism, war, and the individual finds himself powerless? Are we really making our personal choices?

Zona Franca deals with strong feelings, confronting collectives such as religions, rituals, festivities. How much does a group encourage or suppress one’s capacity of being free? What events or circumstances can change a trajectory? A meeting, a book, love, religion, the government, an opportunity? One defining moment. Like a portal you go through.