In Progress | Lola Lustosa

AFTERMATH

Posted 13 de novembro de 2017 by Lola

Metronome

The metronome clicks and gives the pulse to the square-format stage. The lights are on. Four dancers are given rules to move according to the cycle of light. When the lights go off, the dancers move. When the lights come on again, they stop.

The sound of their movements is recorded through contact microphones attached to the floor. With delay, these sounds create different rhythms, all still guided by the continuous rhythm of the metronome.

Because we do not see the dancers’ movements, we begin to imagine them, as we only see their expressions during the still moments. What remains for us is to create our own understanding and contribute, through imagination, to their efforts and actions.

My Research Goals

My goal is to develop my project AFTERMATH, a contemporary dance work that I also consider a method. Aftermathwas first presented in 2012 as a work in progress at the Plataforma Berlin Festival, where I represented Brazil. The work had a duration of 10 minutes, but I would now like, together with my group, to further develop and investigate the project in order to reach a final format.

Aftermath as a Method

Having simple rules or regulations creates a certain frame and space for play, while a variety of topics and themes brings many possibilities for reflection and experimentation. Within the Aftermath method, however, the research must be played through to the end before the results can be analyzed.

When we go back in our minds to understand something in the present, it is often referred to as an aftermath — recalculations of something that has already taken place. History also changes every day, and so does our relationship to it.

Aftermath investigates time and tempo in order to create moments where something is hidden or silenced, so that we only see one “half,” while the other “half” we hear. Our connotations and assumptions create the story, and Aftermathultimately reflects on how our own perceptions shape the way we understand what we experience.

Our technical elements — sound, tempo and rhythm, together with light and darkness, also controlled through rhythm — create a metaphorical platform for producing a wide variety of re-enactments of life through contemporary dance.

The beginning of the project focused on exploring the technical possibilities: recording the floor and its sounds through contact microphones, and also recording the sounds of the lights switching on and off. We created different scores to generate group choreographies, with sound and light reacting in time.

I would like to expand this process and its challenges and develop it further as a narrative — a sequence of scenes carried through using these technical elements and the Aftermath method. The group already understands the method and its metaphorical possibilities, and new scenes and choreographies can be developed through research and improvisation.

Nice reflexion from Laura-Maria Heinz (Berlin Germany)

_170422_Hausarbeit_Das Phänomen Nähe und die Überbrückung von Distanz_Laura-Maria Heinz

Lola Lustosa is an independent Brazilian artist, dancer/performer, filmmaker, sculptor, and puppet maker based in Berlin. Working across multimedia performance, video, movement research, ritual practices, sculpture, and improvisation, her artistic universe explores time, light, space, and the shifting perceptions of the human body. Through alchemy, craft, mythology, and experimental dramaturgy, she creates immersive worlds that invite audiences to encounter new forms of social memory, identity, and collective imagination.

Her work draws from a wide constellation of references: Brazilian Tropicalismo, Indigenous and shamanic knowledge, carnival culture, ancient mythologies, and contemporary underground crafts. These influences converge into performances and theatrical propositions that she describes as “theatre as a martial art”—a practice of confronting urgency, futurity, and the tensions that shape our social landscapes.

In recent years, Lustosa has expanded her practice into sculptural and puppetry-based performance, developing large-scale mythological creatures, masks, and kinetic structures that function as extensions of the human body. Working with recycled materials—often collected from samba schools and collective celebrations—she constructs hybrid sculptural forms that exist between object, costume, architecture, and choreography. In projects such as DRAGONS – Community Constructions and Urban Metamorphoses, these monumental figures become giant puppets that require multiple bodies to activate them, transforming sculpture into a collective organism. Acting as both sculptor and puppet master, Lustosa animates these creatures through ritual, procession, and choreography, creating living mythologies that merge carnival traditions, community participation, and contemporary performance. Through handcrafted materials and performative manipulation, she investigates the relationship between object, performer, and myth, transforming these figures into living sculptures that inhabit the space between ritual, choreography, and storytelling.

Lustosa has presented her work internationally in festivals, museums, theatres, and unconventional urban and natural environments. Her performances and films have appeared in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Helsinki, Rome, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Chandigarh, and at venues such as the Morni Hills Performance Biennale (IND), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, ICI–CNN Montpellier (FR), CTM Festival (GER), Novas Frequências (BR), Rote Fabrik (CH), LPM Festival (GER), Lollapalooza (GER), Martin-Gropius-Bau (GER), 48 Stunden Neukölln (GER), Artistania e.V., Terra Xoxo, and Berlin Art Week.

Since 2011, she has collaborated as a producer and performer with the Plataforma Berlin Iberoamerican Festival, and as co-founder of Musterzimmer (2012–), she has contributed to the curation and construction of numerous events in Berlin. She is a member of the Artistania collective (since 2021), Masketiere (since 2022), and co-founder of Licht Nomaden (2023).

Her ongoing virtual performance EGO OPEN FOREVER, highlighted by Wall Street International, positioned her among the earliest artists to critically question social media as a system of ego management and identity construction—calling Facebook “the biggest ego manager in history.” This work launched her broader investigation into digital identity, social consciousness, and future imaginaries. Since 2021, her performances have increasingly expanded into open environments—streets, carnivals, festivals, forests, and backyards—blending ritual, movement, sculpture, and ecological interaction.

In 2023 she received support from Neustart Kultur for her research project Dance Under Control, during which she further developed her work as a puppeteer, puppet builder, and puppet theatre dramaturg, integrating sculpture, costume, puppetry, and choreography into hybrid performative forms.

She has collaborated with Arto Lindsay, Alexandra Pirici, Barbara Berti, Martha Hincapié Charry, Peter Goss, Serge Ivanov, Eemil Karila, Jarkko Räsänen, Mahir Duman, Mari Stockler, and many others.

Her works are part of the collection of TFM – Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft, Universität Wien, where they remain accessible for research and for future generations of artists and scholars.

Archive for the ‘In Progress’ Category

AFTERMATH

Metronome

My Research Goals

Aftermath as a Method