Laura Lima: Balé Literal

Balé Literal is a tool of poetic resistance, an exhibition-dance turned into a living organism. It is a movement made up of a varied repertoire of dangling object-works, set in motion by a group of people orchestrated by the Brazilian artist Laura Lima (Minas Gerais, 1971). Balé because it is an invitation to a communal dance. Literal because it subverts the meaning of things, mobilising the subversive ambivalence of the poetic. Conceived as a collectively activated mode of encounter, Balé Literal is a choreography of words, objects and people moving together to the rhythm of our errant times.

Balé Literal was initially presented for one evening in June 2019, on a street intersection in front of A Gentil Carioca, a gallery in Rio de Janeiro. The current presentation curated by the Director of MACBA, Elvira Dyangani Ose (Córdoba, 1974), is the first time the piece has been conceived for a museum. While a large centre space houses the stage for its choreographic mechanism, the adjacent space operates as a backstage warehouse—a repository of artifacts ready to be moved into dance.

Behind the curtains, two teams activate the mechatronics of the ballet and hang objects-works from cords, which audiences can observe from windows cut out of the wall dividing the gallery from the atrium. The movement is powered by the pedaling of two bicycles, evoking the motion of a loom. With a soundtrack by Ana Frango Elétrico, lighting design by Andrea Capella, re-engineering by Yoann Saura, and the collaboration of Hangar, every rehearsal of this transmedia choreography is a unique performance. 

Balé Literal is an exhibition-as-dance, a retrospective in motion by Laura Lima. A poetic critique of the retrospective exhibition, this repertoire of dancing artefacts animates concepts developed by the artist over three decades. Paintings, textiles, masks, placards, poems, flying saucers, astronauts, umbrellas and other assorted beings take part in this ritual dance, which invites us to practice new ways of seeing and moving in the museum. “If you move differently, you think differently,” says Lima.

The activation of Balé Literal involves the daily process of hanging, gathering and mobilising the objects.

Activation schedule
Monday, Thursday and Friday: 12–6pm
Wednesday: 3:30–6pm
Saturday: 12–7pm
Sunday: 11:30am–2:30pm