DESCENT ASCENT Samir Calixto / Matter Affects

What can art mean for the increasing confusion and loss of orientation in our time? The Brazilian choreographer Samir Calixto answers this question by creating performances that zoom out, in search of a broader perspective that shows the bigger picture and the deeper connections. It is an approach that offers hope and comfort, but also points to the responsibilities that this connectedness entails.

In the performance SUMMA, which he created in 2018 in collaboration with the Cello Octet Amsterdam, the balance of a world out of balance was assessed based on compositions by Arvo Pärt. Nine years later, the collaboration continues with a performance set to music by another Baltic composer, the Latvian-born Pēteris Vasks, who is considered one of the most influential and acclaimed contemporary European composers. Vasks’ compositions form a musical reflection on the dynamics of opposing forces, such as the eternal repetition of the tides or the unstoppable oscillation between higher and lower, the sacred and the worldly, good and evil. Precisely in a world that is becoming increasingly polarized, it is important to nuance how we deal with contradictions.