The Unspeakable #share

The Unspeakable - research

Conception: Telmo Branco

Sound Design: Marcelo Schmittner

Residency dates: 5 recording sessions with a prior preparation day between the 10th of March and 30st of April of 2021.

"The Unspeakable" sensibly addresses the reality of childhood sexual abuse and its impact in the notions of memory and identity in adulthood.

The aim of this performance activism is not to illustrate this traumatic reality, but rather reflect the environment of secrecy and oppression that perpetuates it.

"The Unspeakable" reflects childhood sexual abuse through a queer lens, while addressing the stigmatization of queerness when associated with sexual abuse. This performance project responds to that stigma by presenting queerness as the abolishment of heteronormative toxic relational patterns that condone violence and abuse, and the nurturing ground for compassion, empowerment, hope and transformation, indispensable for healing.

Within the depths of sorrow "The Unspeakable" incites empowerment, rebuilding and celebration. "My story is your story" said Hannah Gadsby. We are far more than our traumas dictate. Telling our stories is letting our traumatic histories exist as valid living testimonies, as independent learnings no longer attached to us. My story is your story. Your story is my story. My liberation is yours.

The conceptual research of #Share residency was later used for the making of The Unspeakable - Part 3.

"The Unspeakable" research is funded by DISTANZEN Solo | Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and NeustartKultur.

ABOUT #share - Insight into artistic working processes

"With the virtual project #share, the Acker Stadt Palast now offers groups and artists a framework to try out their artistic skills and at the same time to get in touch with their audience via online. The format is an experiment - for everyone involved.

Artists give insights into their work and rehearsal processes and share them online via the channels of the Acker Stadt Palast. The audience, the users of Facebook and instagram are invited to post feedback and get the opportunity to act as co-directors and dramaturges in order to actively shape the processes.

The idea and aim of the collaborative project "The Unspeakable" is to initiate a creative process that explores social and political concepts through dance and theatrical means. How can trauma be reflected and represented artistically and what are the historical aspects that make individual traumas collective?"

Video Documentation

The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. - Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery, 1992