BWW Blog: Choreographer Jean Abreu on Brazilian Art Showcase LABIRINTO

British-Brazilian choreographer Jean Abreu discusses curating LABIRINTO, a showcase of Brazilian art at the Horniman Museum on July 28, as well as adapting his latest dance work, A THREAD (pictured), for a series of 12 short experimental promenade performances to be discovered by audiences

When the Horniman first approached me about this commission - to curate an evening of different art forms spread over the museum and gardens - and told me that they were making a connection with the Rio Olympics, my first instinct was to refer to a part of Brazil and Rio that the general public might not necessarily be aware of, a more hidden side. I wanted to give the audience the sense of discovery I have every time I go to Brazil. It's a view of an outsider looking in, a contemporary vision of Brazil that I find exciting, and it's thrilling to see it evolving. More contemporary artists are being supported than ever before - they're getting help to take their performances and exhibitions across the vast country that is Brazil and further afield to Europe and the US. When I left Brazil 20 years ago, these opportunities were not easily accessible.

The atmosphere that the Horniman generates for me is like a Pandora's box, in that each room surprises you and you don't necessarily know what you are going to encounter. When I put these together, Labirinto is what happened. The sense of discovery, both in the museum and in Brazil, inspired me to want to show them both to the audience to experience Brazil with new eyes. So I set out to provoke curiosity, so that people would come in and search for the next surprise. I want visitors to become treasure-hunters and puzzle-solvers as they discover their own path through the labyrinth of performances we've created.

As a principle in my work I have always enjoyed working in collaboration with a diverse range of artists and media: in the past, this has included the rock band 65daysofstatitc, Italian digital artists, filmmakers, musicians, visual artists such as Gilbert and George, and most recently the sculptor Elisa Bracher from Sao Paulo in my latest work A Thread, which I've adapted for Labirinto. The nature of creating work for me is an act of curating a very special group of people - I have to harness their talents in order to deliver a vision.

The opportunity to apply this knowledge in an environment like the Horniman Museum, with its incredible eclectic collection and artifacts, opens up very exciting possibilities for dance and for the audience experience of the museum. I have selected excerpts from the docu-drama This Love that Consumes by up-and-coming Brazilian film director Allan Ribeiro, which shows another side to life in Rio. As a setting, the museum is not my natural habitat, but I am often attracted to situations that take me out of my comfort zone.

In a first for me, I've been working with Italian digital artists Luca Biada and Alessandro Corsetti to create an online app. I worked with them on my last solo work, and I wanted to work with them again to create a sort of map for the audience. The idea of the app is that it'll be a game that allows the audience to interact with the performance even before they come to see it live through an online 3D map, which will help them to navigate their way through the museum. It's inspired by the idea of online games, and I want to give the impression of a treasure hunt that provokes their curiosity and instigates a search.

Culture is always much more fun when you discover it for yourself, so I hope that by giving audiences the means to do it, they'll discover something surprising and beautiful.

The 10-20-minute Labirinto performances take place between 6:30pm and 9:30pm on July 28 at Horniman Museum. Suitable for ages 12+

Picture credit: Ambra Vernuccio

Watch a sneak peek of A Thread below!