Sound designer Frederico Santiago and actress Julia Portes are coming to our country from Brazil to develop a short performance at Atelier Plastelin, which will be officially presented on 21 December at 7.30 pm.

A talk with them will follow, and afterwards please come and enjoy a tropical cocktail with cachaça and Brazilian music.

The two artists are winners of Radar Sofia's "Take Care" residency programme, the platform that has provided residencies for more than 20 international artists in our capital city over the past 5 years, helping to foster intercultural exchange in theatre and dramaturgy. The event at Atelier Plastelin will also be part of Radar Sofia's 5th anniversary celebrations.

Frederico Santiago and Julia Portes are multidisciplinary artists whose solo and collaborative work explores the boundaries between performance, classical dramaturgy, sound and video art. Their work explores themes such as immigration, decoloniality, cultural appropriation, language barriers, norms of behaviour, gender power relations and the feeling of non-belonging.

In the sound and body project, as they call it, the two will tell a human story in performative language, in which they will provoke the viewer to think about what do you have to sacrifice to cross a border? What are the limits of sensitivity to the concerns and boundaries of others?

What would you take in your bag if you had to leave?

"How to not be yourself" consists of two performers staging a visa meeting. On one side there’s a South American immigrant woman who is trying to get a visa and, on the other side, an officer who is in charge of evaluating her documents and behavior. Through this encounter, the performance address issues such as decoloniality, cultural stereotyping and power relations between genders.

Frederico Santiago is a Brazilian sound artist, soundtrack composer and music producer. With a Masters degree in Music Composition from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, he explores the creative potential of sonic spatiality in electroacoustic music, and has created an album of acoustic compositions. He works as a sound designer and soundtrack composer for audio post-productions for film, television and advertising. He has participated in feature films, series and television programs. He has also worked as an instrumentalist and music producer for artists from the Brazilian music scene such as Estômago, Nitú, Alan Bernardes, Coconomã, Tuny and Lukash.

Julia Portes is an actress, playwright and screenwriter. She has a BA in Performing Arts and has published her first novel, The Sky in the Middle of the Face (NAU Publishing), published in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Berlin. She is part of Brecha's Creation Collective, where she developed the film "We're Not Sweet Anymore" and the show "It's About You". She has performed on various stages, including FLUL - University of Lisbon - and the Rio Theatre Festival, where she won the awards for Best Actress and Best Text. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Nice International Film Festival with the short film S.I.N.A.I.S. As an actress and playwright, she has also starred in the plays "That Thing We Don't Know What It Is But Suspect" and "Happy Dead". She is creating a script for a Netflix series in collaboration with Daniel Filho. Julia Portes teaches creative writing workshops and courses.

The project is supported by the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria and the Programme for the Recovery and Development of Private Cultural Organisations 2022-2023.