V2
Diogo Liberano on stage, by João Miguel Ferreira
[...]
What we don't know about something still exists, the thing doesn't cease to be because we don't see or feel it, just because it's not within reach doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
let's imagine a table: what we perceive of it, color, shape, texture, its size, are phenomena, now the thing-in-itself, the thing-in-itself of the table is a hidden reality, we cannot access it directly because we only know the table through our perception and understanding.
[...]
Excerpt from Declaration of Dependency - Version 2
dramaturgy by Diogo Liberano
V1
Monastery of Saint Benedict of Victory, National Theatre of Saint John, Porto/Portugal - Disclosure
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we'd better read the news of the day
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I don't understand what the issue is
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the conversation wasn't bad at all
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I don't like it, sorry to interrupt, I don't like the word, open quotes, between the lines, close quotes
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I imagine that this author who declined entered a symbolic impasse, after all, he was invited to celebrate Brazil's independence from Portugal, but to what extent does this event effectively celebrate independence or does it simply reinforce a history of violence and oppression?
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could you say it the same way?
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To what extent does this event celebrate independence or reinforce a history of violence and oppression?
[...]
Excerpt from Declaration of Dependency - Version 1
dramaturgy by Diogo Liberano
Declaration of Dependency
A realisation in versions
The Declaration of Dependence (DdD) project is Platô's first artistic realisation. It emerged in mid-2022, when Diogo Liberano wanted to create a project that could manifest itself in different forms and versions, each corresponding to the specific moment in which it was created.
For the creator, conceiving a project that authorises itself to be revealed progressively and through different versions is a way of validating the immanence of the creative process, trusting that each version – despite models and markets – will be able to become what it really wants to become.
Depends on which dependency
The negative meaning usually attributed to the notion of dependence is called into question in this project: to what extent is being independent not the same as being alone? To what extent is independence not also one of the arms of the capitalist religion?
Based on these questions, Liberano dedicates each version to investigating any independence that seems to hide something other than simple autonomy between the parties involved. The artist's interest - by calling certain independencies into question - is to promote the reconnection of what, in his view, is too separate.
Declaration of Dependence – Version 2
(Diabetes mellitus)
The second version of DdD is a performance based on diabetes mellitus (DM), a chronic metabolic disease that leads to high blood sugar levels (glycaemia). In this performance, Liberano questions the culturally established antagonism between people with diabetes and sugar ("diabetics can't eat sugar").
Diabetic since the age of 6, the performer wants to take a different look at the disease and, by extension, his own condition: is the relationship of enmity between diabetics and sugar the best it can be?
The dependence between sugar and diabetes finds renewed meaning in this creation, because by proposing a revision of the pejorative charge attributed to the notion of dependence and the very education received about diabetes, Liberano speculates to what extent this refusal of sugar has changed his relationship with sweetness, in other words, with the ability to give and receive love.
Find out more about the performance
Declaration of Dependence – Version 2
Declaration of Dependence – Version 1
(Bicentenary of Brazil's independence from Portugal))
The first version of DdD appeared in 2022, when Liberano was invited to take part in the Readings at the Monastery, an event organised by the São João National Theatre (Porto, Portugal), to which he had to submit a play to be read publicly during the celebrations of the bicentenary of Brazil's independence from Portugal.
In response to the invitation, Liberano wrote the first version of DdD, which was performed as a collective reading by around 30 people on the evening of Tuesday 20 December 2022, at 7pm, at the Monastery of São Bento da Vitória, São João National Theatre, Porto/Portugal.
In the dramaturgy created, we follow the unfolding of a public event in Portugal where the characters or voices debate issues such as language, cognition and independence, highlighting the relationship between Brazil and Portugal. Through provocative dialogues, the text addresses issues such as xenophobia, symbolic violence and the power of words.
Read the dramaturgy of
Declaration of Dependence – Version 1