RICARDO FRAYHA
producer

Theatre | CREATION | 2007

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LOLA ARIAS

STEFAN KAEGI

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Chácara Paraíso

Chácara Paraíso, São Paulo, is the location of the largest center of soldier’s education of the Military Police in Latin America.  Every day, more that 2000 soldiers learn how to march, approach, and attack there. There is even a favela-simulation-set for policemen to rehearse and simulate incidences that are, according to them, “as close to reality as possible”. Can the police actually simulate crime? Can artists represent the police? The theatre directors Lola Arias (Argentina), and Stefan Kaegi (Germany/Switzerland), who are working together for the first time, visited the police-centers for education and training, the graduation ceremonies, the centers of psychological assistance, cavalries, the Musical Body, and even the Military Police’s chapel, in São Paulo. During this research, a heterogeneous and amazing image of the police institute arose, a society within society. Chácara Paraíso [Small farm Paradise] was the name chosen for a form of installation that mingles documentary and fiction, showing biographies of people who, at some point of their lives, experienced the police universe. The play challenges the public’s perception, for it questions the fast distinction between “good” and “bad”. The empty space on the 14th floor of the SESC in Avenida Paulista, now under renovation, will be filled with art by people (not actors). They reconstruct autobiographical scenes that, at times, may appear fictional. The public will walk through the rooms in small groups. With this, the live exhibit aims to create an intimate and subjective experience with policemen, former policemen, and their families. Here policemen are challenged to speak in a way they are not allowed to in their position as guardians of law and order: Here they speak in first person.

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STEFAN KAEGI

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Almost twenty years have passed since Stefan Kaegi first started his traveling around the world, in his effort to work with simple people or “everyday life experts”, as he calls them. Spanning an area from Europe to Asia and Latin America, he has granted leading roles to non-professional actors, who have nevertheless interesting stories to tell – be they Bulgarian truck drivers or Brazilian police officers. Thanks to their contribution, the Swiss director has created documentary theater pieces, radio plays, and installation-performances in the urban space. As one of the founding members of the famous theater group Rimini Protokoll – along with Daniel Wetzel and Helgard Haug – and through his interdisciplinary method, he investigates the notion of reality, attaining an unanticipated directness in his relation to the audience. He has received numerous distinctions, both as a group member and an individual. Among others, he was the recipient of the European Cultural Foundation’ Routes Award for Cultural Diversity in 2010, while, as a member of Rimini Protokoll, he has shared the European prize “New Realities in Theater” in 2008, as well as the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for Theatre in 2011.

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LOLA ARIAS

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Lola Arias (b. 1976, Buenos Aires) is a writer, theatre director, and performer. She collaborates with artists from different disciplines in theatre, literature, music and art projects. Her productions play with the overlap zones between reality and fiction. She works with actors, policemen, beggars, musicians, dancers, prostitutes, children and animals. She staged Mi vida después (2009), with six performers who reconstruct their parents’ youth in the 70’s in Argentina by means of photos, letters, cassettes and old clothes; Familienbande (2009) about a family with two mothers at Kammerspiele, Munich; and That Enemy Within (2010) in collaboration with two identical twins at HAU, Berlin. In Chile, she staged The year I was born (2012), based on biographies of people born during Pinochet’s dictatorship. In Buenos Aires, she produced Melancolía y Manifestaciones (2012) a play about her mother’s depression. Her piece The art of making money (2013) was performed by beggars, prostitutes and street musicians from the city of Bremen. Together with Ulises Conti, she composes and plays music, and released the albums El amor es un francotirador (2007) and Los que no duermen (2011). Her projects with Stefan Kaegi of Rimini Protokoll are Chácara Paraíso (2007), Airport Kids (2008) and Ciudades Paralelas (2010), a Festival of urban interventions in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Warsaw, Zurich and other cities. She published poetry, fiction and plays. Lola Arias’ works for theatre have been performed at festivals including Festival d’Avignon; Theater Spektakel, Zurich; Wiener Festwochen; Spielart Festival, Munich; Alkantara Festival, Lisbon; Under the Radar, NY; and in venues like Theatre de la Ville, Red Cat LA, Walker Art Centre, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

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CHÁCARA PARAÍSO 
Police Art Showcase

Direction: Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias | After Rimini Protokoll (Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel) idea | Artistic collaboration and assistant direction: Cristiane Zuan Esteves | Second asssistant director: Manuela Afonso | with: Beatriz, Cleber Rodrigues Campos, Marcelo, Luis Carlos Tokunaga, Sebastião Teixeira dos Santos, Thiago de Paula Santos Alves, Oliveira, Paulo Roberto do Nascimento, Pedro Amorim, “Flávia”, Eliana Gomes Viana Pires, Marcel Lima, Fábio Amorim, Terezinha Maria de Jesus Santos, and the kids Jefferson Queiroz da Silva and Jessica Aparecida da Silva | Spacial construction: Julio Cesarini | Technicians: Ednomar Mendonça, Wiliam Torres, Nelson Fracola Filho, Juliano Fabricio de Freitas | Video editing: Marilia Halla | Graphic design: Érico Peretta | Web-designer: Ricardo Campos

Production: prod.art.br | Production directors:  Matthias Pees and Ricardo Muniz Fernandes | Administration: Veridiana Gomes Fernandes |  Executive production: Cristina Floria | Assistant production: Ricardo Frayha | Juridical assistance: Martha Macruz de Sá  

Realisation: Goethe-Institut São Paulo, Sesc São Paulo |  Support: Kulturstiftung des Bundes | The project is part of Copa da Cultura Brasil+Deutschland 2006, an initiative by the Culture MInistry (MinC) | Support: FAAP Artistic Residency

Sesc Avenida Paulista

São Paulo, SP, Brazil

02 to 11/02/2007