For the 33rd Sao Paulo Biennale (7 September—9 December 2018), Tal Isaac Hadad has developed a new chapter of his performance, Récital pour un masseur. The project, which was initiated during a residency at Le Laboratoire Cambridge (USA) and launched at the Opéra national de Montpellier (France) in 2017, is typical of Hadad’s research practice in the way it brings the body and the voice into mutual resonance, producing an astounding form of synesthesia. For the duration of the Biennale, singers and masseurs—live, in the exhibition space—will be relaying with one another through various configurations in order to conceive a new genre of recital. Following a principle defined by the artist, a masseur applies gestures to the body of a singer (the soloist), who emits sounds that solicit the voices of the other singers (the choir) to come together in response. No score precedes these a capella improvisations. The sounds unfold under the impetus of the massaged soloist, each echoing the next, harmonising in an intense choral effect. This ephemeral, shifting composition, constantly singular, devolves from a participative system based on mutual, deep, and sensitive listening. From the masseur to the choir by way of the soloist, each performer is receptive and attentive in order to fully feel their own consciousness as well as the others’, the body and the voice vibrating in unison in an extreme state of empathy. In order to preserve the spontaneity of their sung dialogue, there is no script. Hadad gives the performers a single injunction during the few working sessions they have together: let it all go while remaining yourselves. In this way, he creates a favourable context for relaxing and exchanging, with a simple, minimal set-up and no artifice—only a few benches on which the singers lie in order to be massaged and have their voices freed. The visiting public is, by extension, invited to experience this situation of listening by emerging itself in this bodily, sonorous mass made up of at least one masseur and five singers. The variable geometry of the grouping brings in masseurs with different specialties (Rolfing, Marma, and Oriental) together with both professional and non-professional singers, from classical and popular backgrounds, carefully chosen by the artist onsite. At once personal and collective, interior and exterior, this new sensorial experience extends our capacity for listening by redefining the relationship between the body and the voice through our relationship to others and to ourselves. L.D

Performance with Deva Kiran (Masseur Marma), Thais Ushirobira (Masseur Rolfing) Endo Lincoln (Asian Massage ).

Singers: Claus Xavier, Éder Augusto Marcos, Juliana Silva, Palomaris Mathias, Pâmela Oliveira, Rafael Oliveira.

The piece feature invited guest singers during the exhibition period appearing in documentations: Daniel Soufer, Jorge Lee, Rosely Aparecida Daltério, Marina fossa, Silnei Doomacil, Laeticia Goes .

Coordination: Paola Ribeiro.