Activating the work Library ONE, TWO AND MANY, we're starting the season of ONE (from May to July) with the book "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe. In this chapter of ONE, we will discuss and experience what Sofia Neuparth brings from her studies on the movements that mould the body during the development of the human embryo. A practice carried out inside “Sol” [Sun], a work-space created by Marta Wengorovius for these meetings.

Sofia Neuparth has a unique trajectory in Contemporary Art in Portugal, centred on an understanding of the body as a relational event that guides her actions. She has been developing training activities since the 1980s and runs c.e.m - centro em movimento, a space for research, experimentation and artistic creation. Her contributions to c.e.m's regular programming are of particular note, including the Experimental Space, her work with the city, and her research/creation/training programmes. As a teacher, researcher, and creator, she promotes continuous reflection, exercising the generation of possible worlds and art as a fundamental form of knowledge. She is also active and critical in relation to cultural policies, co-founding APPD and REDE. She maintains an interdisciplinary approach to dance, exploring other forms of knowledge such as embryology and philosophy, resulting in significant creations and publications over the years.

Saturday, 11/05/2024 — 17.00–19.00 
MAAT Garden
Marta Wengorovius | Sofia Neuparth

ONE, TWO, AND MANY | The Reading Body, or Infinity

ONE, TWO, AND MANY | The Reading Body, or Infinity is the latest instalment in Marta Wengorovius's plastic and participatory artwork ONE, TWO, AND MANY.* This visual piece is also a method through which the artist explores issues stemming from intuition and the genesis of movement, emphasising the different dimensions of three types of dynamics: ONE as singularity and interiority, TWO as intimacy, and MANY as an encounter with the experience of community.

The Reading Body, or Infinity is an invitation to take part in a slow process of gestation and digestion: over the course of a year, a series of encounters will take place in the form of guided walks between a museum (maat) and a mountain range (Serra da Arrábida), activating the ONE, TWO, AND MANY* Library (a work created in 2012 that serves as a reflection guide for the OTM Method*) at a crossroads between the Book and the Body. Three books have been selected from the ONE, TWO, AND MANY Library. Each will be read over four months by each Utopian Family. The Time of ONE, the Time of TWO, and the Time of MANY. During each reading period, there will be a Stimulus-Encounter, Encounters with the Nomadic Notebooks* (OTM reading and exploration diaries) and Lessons Under the Trees.* [Please refer to the Glossary to better understand these different instalments.]

Designed specifically for maat, ONE, TWO, AND MANY | The body that reads, or infinity is the artwork's fourth instalment. This journey began with OTM — Nomadic School* | Taking the colours where they are most needed (2020–22) at Jardim dos Pintores, Casa da Cerca, Almada, followed by OTM Residency (2020–23) at Teatro do Bairro Alto (TBA), Lisbon, and more recently OTM | If a mountain range were to guide us (2022–23), at Brotéria, Lisbon.