“Tuesday: All that is Solid Melts into Air premiered in March 2017, about a year after the first play. Not only was Europe still bound by neoliberal dogma, but it had shown an even more odious face. For several years, thousands of African migrants had been dying in the Mediterranean trying to cross the sea, and others had been detained in refugee camps to be deported. But now they were joined by Syrian refugees, who were making their way on foot through Turkey and other Levantine countries, only to be detained in inhumane conditions. The conflict in the Middle East and forced migration had reached the European continent 50 years after the founding of the State of Israel.

The set was a platform covered in black carpet where the two creators drew a series of figures with white thread, inspired by Luciano Cavandoli's animated film La Linea. In the background, on a screen, phrases were projected that completed the meaning of the images drawn. In an apparently neutral tone, the text unraveled the thread of a realistic parable, full of historical facts, which told of the misadventure of an imaginary figure, Omar. Coming from Syria, this ten-year-old boy couldn't be any one of us – ever, the text emphasizes – even though we all saw ourselves linked to him. Sound, image, movement and text were carefully disconnected from each other (and manipulated in plain sight) in order to cause strangeness and reflection. At the same time, the combination of words with figures, noises and bodies generated a sequence of symbols that gave the arguments and facts presented a strong emotional and intimate charge, widening the circle of those involved in the subject to include both the spectators in the audience and European policymakers.”

Jorge Louraço Figueira