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Suspense is maintained from beginning to end in the performance of objects and projections Airplanes & Skyscrapers, manipulated with brilliance by American-Brazilian Ricky Seabra. The attacks of September 11, 2001 are re-examined through the magical prism of the memory of Seabra, a fan since childhood of planes and skyscrapers. The two are subject of an emotional decoding related to the life of the artist. Seabra works out a sophisticated scenario in which he manipulates images cut out from magazines, composes collages, makes miniature planes glide, shows archive footage. One misses nothing of this definitive epos like the loss of innocence and faith in the future. After Ricky Seabra, one can no longer look at airplanes and skyscrapers the same way. ..... - Le Monde, Paris - Rosita Boisseau Airplanes & Skyscrapers is a piece in which personal and collective memories are unravelled in a confessional and melancholic tone with interludes of humor, ironic lyricism and poetry. What is so moving about it is that with his very personal point of view he humanizes the tragic events of the day that changed the world without ever making the piece into a chronological summary of events, without resorting to demagogery and stimulating the spectator to relive his or her own 9/11. ..... - Y Magazine, O Publico, Lisbon A wonderful story about memory of skyscrapers and graceful airplanes that need to find a place after the September 11 attacks. A combination of lecture and film, handyman and storyteller. Simple, powerful, without fuss and straight to the heart. Go see it. It is truly a small jewel in the flood of 9-11 documentaries." ..... - Dutch Theater Review Moose.NL The best example of The New Social Theater shown at the Theater Festival of Flanders. ..... - De Standaard (Beglian Newspaper) A Masterpiece. ..... - Jans Possel, Mediamatic, Amsterdam Seabra uses manipulated film and video to create an image of what is going on in his mind and he does it impressively and with utmost creativity. He shows how wonderful modern technological developments are and how vulnerable they make us. What performer Ricky Seabra makes us feel very well is that on that disastrous day much more collapsed than a couple of skyscrapers. In beautiful original pictures this In Memoriam shows that progressive thought got a dizzying blow that will be felt long hereafter. The happiness and the innocence of old film images have been replaced by fear and confusion. It will be a long time until those have past. ..... - Brabants Dagblad (Brabant Daily) (...) There are a few impressions from this yearÕs National Review of Live Art. (...) This year I counted ninety-eight performances, installations, screenings, talks, presentations and other events. It is literally impossible to see everything. I have not even mentioned for example some of the things that most excited me: (...) the deeply upsetting piece Airplanes and Skyscrapers by Parsons graduate Ricky Seabra; (...) ..... - The Robert Ayers Column, National Review of Live Art, Glasgow The choice of music is historically well thought out and in tune with the subject matter. What even makes this audiovisual lecture more pleasant is that it never goes over your head... At the end he gives an amazing impression of the Twin Towers reflected in glass. Doing so Seabra gives back to the world something of the gigantic status symbol which is sadly absent. ..... - Noord Holland Dagblad (North Holland Daily) |
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Airplanes & Skyscrapers have always been an obsession for artist, designer and performer Ricky Seabra. His relationship with airplanes has been an uneasy one of admiration and fear. Skyscrapers, on the other hand, have always been a source of fascination especially after living in New York City for seven years. In particular, the observation deck on the 110th floor of the World Trade Center was his favorite place in New York to visit. But with family and friends living in both Washington and New York it goes without saying that September 11th came as a more than just a shock to Seabra. Everything he held as glamorous, romantic and even futuristic was now synonymous with terror and vulnerability. Airplanes & Skyscrapers premiered in Mechelen, Belgium on September 11th 2002. Seabra tells stories, shows and manipulates images of airplanes and skyscrapers with his own hands live on stage. He recontextualizes the many images and memories he has of airplanes and skyscrapers through a mixture of live-action animation, music and storytelling. Airplanes & Skyscrapers is a journey through stories of disappointment and hope; stories that run deeper than an attack on a symbol of financial might, deeper than patriotic tales in red white and blue. |
Airplanes
& Skyscrapers: a manipulated monologue Concept, Text, Performance by Ricky Seabra Directed
by Andrea Jabor Produced by Kunstencentrum nOna Performed
in English OR Portuguese Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes Video Editing: Guido Van Troost Music compilation by Ricky Seabra Sound Engineering by Marc Nukoop & Atilla Nemeth Computer
animation generously contributed by Special
Thanks: Christopher Figger / Ellison Pearson / Narendra Nandoe / Rob
Van Der Stel / Don Giller / Beam Systems, Amsterdam / Fares el-Dahdah
/ Mounir M. Mohamad / Brigitte Belanger @ Bellissima Stichting, Amsterdam
/ Jaime Lockwood / Always Mom / Always Alex / Always Philippe / Always
Jan / Paul Van Den Berg / Martin Novoa / Masako Noguchi / Meg Grant
/ Nogueirinha / Matthew Waldman / Rasheed Abou-Alsamh / Christy Trotter
/ Toek Numan / Flavia Souza / DJ Zupa / Anne Gentenaar Finally,
a special thanks to the |
Performances:
2008 2007 2005 2004 2003 2002
for upcoming presentations click on: |
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Poster from the New Theatermakers Tour, The Netherlands
