RICARDO FRAYHA
producer

this body is so impermanent... is a multi-disciplinary film performance project based on a passage from the Vimalakirti Sutra, a foundational Buddhist text from the 1st century CE. Made in isolation by artists on three continents, the project is a creative response to COVID-19. The group of virtuosic and singular artists – South Indian devotional singer Ganavya in Tygh Valley, OR; improvisatory dancer Michael Schumacher in Amsterdam, Netherlands; visual artist and calligrapher Wang Dongling and cinematographer Yu Luk-wai in Hangzhou, China; sound designer Shahrokh Yadegari in La Jolla, CA; film editor Tim Squyres in Maplewood, NJ; and director Peter Sellars in Los Angeles, CA – came together to create an hour-long meditation on a transformative and startlingly honest text. The passage used from the Vimalakirti Sutra is one of the most profound and penetrating descriptions of the human body in early literature, one that understands illness as more than affliction – that it is also a messenger. The text contrasts the body that is impermanent, that is fated to be broken and destroyed, with the body of reality, the body that is formed by all our good actions, wisdom, generosity, love, patience, morality, transcendence, and shared kindness and courage. this body is so impermanent... becomes a memorial of shared suffering, and a message of beauty and hope.

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PETER SELLARS

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Peter Sellars is an opera, film, theater, and festival director who has gained international renown for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of 20th-century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative artists. His work illuminates art’s power as a means of moral expression and social action. Sellars has led major arts festivals in Los Angeles, Adelaide and Vienna. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and Director of the Boethius Initiative at UCLA, and a resident curator of the Telluride Film Festival. His many awards include a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize, the Gish Prize, and the Polar Music Prize. Sellars conceived and directed this body is so impermanent... in response to the global pandemic.

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THIS BODY IS SO IMPERMANENT...

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A production of The Boethius Initiative at UCLA and Fisher Center at Bard | Director: Peter Sellars | Excutive Producers: Peter Sellars, Gideon Lester, Diane J.Malecki | Producers: Julia Carnahan, Cheng-Sim Lim, Caleb Hammons, Susan Pertel Jain, Jason Silverman, Cathy Teixeira | Cast: Wang Dongling, Michael Schumacher, Ganavya Doraiswamy | Director of Photography (Hangzhou): Yu Lik-wai | Second Unit Photography (Portland): Eben Joondeph Hoffer | Sound Designer: Shahrokh Yadegari | Editor: Tim Squyres | Vimalakirti Sutra English translation: Robert Thurman | Chinese translation: Kumārajīva | Portuguese translation: Fernanda Mello | Legendagem: Rodrigo Gava | Articulation in Brazil: prod.art.br (Ricardo Frayha, Ricardo Muniz Fernandes)
 

Bienal Sesc de Dança
sesc digital
10/10/2021 till 17/10/2021

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