"The Tradition" is an interdisciplinary piece that confronts patriarchal forms of oppression, their roots, and aftermath.
"The Tradition" portrays the traces left in our society by centuries of toxic masculinity, religious and folkloric indoctrination, and by social stratification built upon bullying.
Ultimately "The Tradition" approaches how the toxic traditions and practices of my community have affected me as a queer person.
"The Tradition" interpolates film/documentary excerpts recorded in my hometown Elvas, southern Portugal. This community serves as the empirical example of how history and its adjacent wounds are remembered and reflected.
Telmo Branco is an interdisciplinary queer artist trained in the fields of acting, performance art, physical theatre, and contemporary dance. Telmo Branco is originally from Portugal and based in Berlin. With a consideration for emotional sensitivity, his work is designed to reflect individuals and their oppressive history. Telmo reflects oppression as a denominator of individual and collective trauma, institutionalized in the social and family unit. He is currently developing “The Unspeakable”, a performance research on the cultural stigmatization of Trauma. He is also currently developing “The Tradition” , a performance-film on generational traditions and patriarchal oppression. His short-film “The Kingdom” is on display in international film venues, and has won honorary mentions from Inshadow – Lisbon Screen Dance Festival, and Rollout Macau Dance Festival. Finally, he is also a member of one of the choreographic teams involved in “Moving the Forum”, at the Humboldt Forum (Berlin Palace). Besides developing his own work, he has collaborated with artists from different fields such as Veronica Riz (IT), Helena Waldmann (DE), Nir de Wolff (IL) , Annelie Andre (AT), Alexandra Pirici (RO), Falk Richter (DE), Lea Pitschke and Michael Baumann (DE), Shang-Chi Sun (TW) Ximo Flores (ES), etc..
https://www.telmoqbranco.com/en/portfolio/
https://www.telmoqbranco.com/en/performance-making