The Unspeakable - Part 3
THE UNSPEAKABLE - Part 3
Creation, performance and sound design: Telmo Branco (they/them)
Sound operation: Ren Mauney (they/them)
Camera operation: Lúcia Pires (she/her) and Ren Mauney (they/them)
Photo and video editing: Telmo Branco
With the support of: Goethe-Institut Lisbon and Largo Residencias
Residency support: Polo Cultural das Gaivotas
Funded by: DISTANZEN Solo | Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and NEUSTARTKULTUR
Duration: 55 min approx.
Age classification: 16+
THE UNSPEAKABLE - Part 3, is part of the "The Unspeakable - Trilogy", a research project initiated in Berlin, germany, in collaboration with Acker Stadt Palast and Hosek Contemporary.
Warning
The content of this performance may be sensitive for people with experiences of sexual abuse, or similar trauma. This performance does NOT recreate, literally describe, or graphically expose the violence inherent in the topic.
THE UNSPEAKABLE - Part 3
SYNOPSIS
When I was a child, my father raped me.
This performance is not about him. Nor about the act of rape.
When I was a child, my father trafficked my body.
He taught me that sexual violence is structural, has multiple agents, contexts and spaces, and feeds on silence, secrecy, shame, gender phobias, misogyny, religion, hunger, politics, tradition, habit, repetition, and forgetfulness.
This performance is not about my father. It is about the culture of those who came before and after him.
Father statue, today I take you down - you and those who came before and after you. Father history. Father of many and total absence of Father. Patriarchy, today I denounce you, and in denouncing you, I take away your power, your influence, your protagonism.
This performance is not about you. It is about rescuing my body, my voice, my self worth and my sexuality, from your dominion.
"The Unspeakable - Part 3" is an activist performance, which utilizes the disciplines of theater, dance and sound design, to confront structural sexual violence and the culture of silence.
CREATION (side note):
"The Unspeakable", is a performative trilogy which began its development in Berlin, where it was first presented in May 2022, at the Acker Stadt Palast and the Hosek Contemporary gallery (The Unspeakable - Part 1). It was also presented in Porto, Portugal, at Mala Voadora, in November 2022 (The Unspeakable - Part 2). This work began by addressing gender violence and systemic queerphobia, later maturing into the topic it now faces - structural sexual violence.
"The Unspeakable - Part 3" arises from the need to destigmatize narratives of sexual abuse from a victimizing context, to one of empowerment, resilience and agency.
This trilogy aimed to create a relationship between different forms of systemic interpersonal and social violence, against the historical backdrop of patriarchy and adjacent misogyny, toxic masculinity, religious puritanism, domestic violence and child abuse.
The goal of this activist performance is to cultivate hope, courage and self-love.
The Unspeakable - Part 3 / Trailer