The most tender ilusion (revisited)

Inside a dome, the voices of three women are heard from small clay pots. UMCOLETIVO presents at Casa Fernando Pessoa a sensory re-interpretation of the show The most tender illusion, based on Fernando Pessoa's text O Marinheiro.

The most tender illusion was the show that inaugurated UM COLETIVO in 2013, on the occasion of the centenary of Fernando Pessoa's text, O Marinheiro.

Now, 10 years later, UM COLETIVO is looking for possible sensory readings of Pessoa's text. The most tender illusion is revisited, rethought and transformed into an installation. The dome that occupies the temporary exhibition room at Casa Fernando Pessoa is made up of small clay pots used to catch octopuses, also called alcatruzes. The key to this installation will be the position in which each one is placed on the dome. The visitor-spectator is invited to read and listen to fragments of O Marinheiro, elements that are repeated in a cadence that is impossible to determine and that refer to an idea of an endless cycle of waiting.

O Marinheiro (The Mariner) is the static drama that Fernando Pessoa wrote in 1913, the only text for the theater that he left finished. A text in which the characters are motionless and when brought to the stage, expression is placed in the intonation of the words. 

110 years after the publication of Fernando Pessoa's text, The most tender illusion (revisited) marks for UM COLETIVO an aesthetic and a search for connection with the text and with the place of the viwer.

A project by: UMCOLETIVO - Bruno Caracol, Cátia Terrinca, João P. Nunes, Raquel Pedro e Ricardo Boléo
With the collaboration of: Liliana Ferreira / Atelier da Serafina​​​​​​​
Communication design:  atelier-do-ver​​​​​​​
Production assistance: ​​​​​​​Casa Fernando Pessoa