THAÍS MEDEIROS
Actress, director, dramaturge, visual artist, researcher, artivist, founder of Coletivo Galeria Gruta, producer and martial artist
Graduated at the Teatro Escola Macunaíma, she has been researching about the actor’s work for 25 years. Using the principles of this art, she elaborated her own methodology that has as its basis the corporal awareness. Her research is extended to experiments in both visual and written languages. She has conceived, directed, acted and ministered workshops and did the dramaturgy of several plays and performances from 1991 to 2023. She is a Kung Fu black-belt in Choy Lay Fut system at Shaolin Kung Fu Institute with Master Marco Serra.
She studied theatrical anthropology with Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley (The Secret Art of the Actor) and several members of Odin Teatret: Roberta Carreri, Jan Ferslev and Else Marie.
She is an active participant in the international network of contemporary theater women “The Magdalena Project” and participated in several festivals linked to it, among them "The Magdalena Project @ 25" (Cardiff UK); "Transit VI" (Odin Teatret, Hosltebro – Denmark), "Vértice Brasil" (Brazil); Multicidade (Brazil); and Magdalena Saison (Munich - Germany). Creator and artistic director of “Ocupação Magdalena”, an international meeting between women artists in São Paulo.
She conceived, directed and acted in several plays and performances.
She founded in 2008 the colective Coletivo Galeria Gruta that is a network of independent artists focused on the encounter and artistic practices articulated by the desire and need to research and create scenic experiments and instigate/provoke artistic and cultural exchanges by appropriating public spaces and private. Since its creation, it has carried out interventions, exhibitions, performances and shows, appropriating public spaces, as well as participating and conducting national and international exhibitions and festivals. In 2022 she participate in The Forecast 7 Forum with the mentorship of Florentina Holzinger: Bodies in Action with her project “Estar uma Árvore”, in Berlin. She participates in Frauen Theater Festival with her work “Traces of a Manifest” in Frankfurt.
Between 1990 and 2023 she participated in trainings and research workshops on the actor’s work with various theater and dance professionals among them: Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini (Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards); Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Mark Taylor and Adriana Almeida (BMC– Body-Mind Centering); Tadashi Endo (Butoh Centrum MAMU); Neide Neves (Klauss Vianna); Carlos Simioni (Lume); and LAPCA-UNESP.
In the visual arts, she had participated in several individual and collective exhibitions, including in São Paulo subway stations - Vila Madalena, Corinthians-Itaquera and Paraíso, in urban art shows, and she was awarded several national and international awards. She has works in private collections in several countries, at the Estação Utinga 2024 Urban Art Exhibition (CPTM station, in Santo André-SP) and at the São Paulo Parliament Art Museum.
ULYSSES SANCHEZ
Visual artist, muralist and producer
He graduated in graphic arts from the SENAI Theobaldo de Nigris school in 1990. After working in advertising agencies, he dedicated himself to the visual arts, developing since 1995 a work with various materials on different supports, with which he holds exhibitions in Brazil and elsewhere. countries.
His work is essentially figurative, moving through different styles. His cubist-inspired series shows figures and landscapes from rural and urban areas.
He participated in several group exhibitions, including: Lauderdale House Cultural Center, London; 22nd ACSP Pinheiros, SP and Luxembourg International Contemporary Art Salon;
He was one of the winners of the MAR 2022 - Urban Art Museum, and of the graffiti competition "Arte na Porta DPaschoal" in 2017. He won several awards, including the Gold Medal at the “23rd ACSP Pinheiros Salon” in São Paulo, Honorable Mention and Silver Medal at the “Lauderdale House Cultural Center” in London.
He developed mural painting projects for several institutions, including the Greenpeace headquarters in São Paulo, SENAI Theobaldo de Nigris School, Kovalent group headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and ADN headquarters in Goiânia. He has works in several private collections in several countries and in the São Paulo Parliament Art Museum.
He is co-founder of Coletivo Galeria Gruta, a collective of independent artists that walks the boundaries between theater, performance and visual arts, dialoguing with languages and working on political and existential themes and since 2008 has been carrying out performances, interventions, festivals, etc.
IVAN MEDEIROS
Musician, producer, performer and martial artist
He began his studies on drums in 2005 at the Instituto Bateras Beat, at the Conservatório Musical Souza Lima and is currently studying the last semester of his bachelor's degree (BA) in music-performance at FIAM-FAAM in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2008 he founded the Black Garoa Blues Band and participated in different independent groups including: Tupis de Júpiter, 7Calls, Bonnaparte Express and currently at Blocked Bones.
Since 2013 he has participated in the performance-installation Tapete Manifesto with which he was invited to an artistic residency at Villa Waldberta (Munich, Germany) in 2018.
Graduated in business from FEA-USP in 2011, with a specialization in Strategy & Marketing from the University of La Verne (USA) and a postgraduate degree in Cultural Management at the SESC Research and Training Center (SESC-CPF).
He is the co-founder of Coletivo Galeria Gruta, a network of independent artists that walks the boundaries between theater, performance, music, visual and martial arts, dialoguing with languages and working on political and existential themes.
He worked as manager of tax incentives projects at Mina Cultural and since 2016 and as executive producer at Aymberê Produções Artísticas. He is currently an executive producer at Flow Creative Core working on productions for the Latin Grammy, Amazon Music, Pinterest, Artsy Club Studio and Sofar Sounds.
Martial artist has been training Kung Fu since 2005 in the Choy Lay Fut system (current 2nd degree black belt) and was part of the group of instructors at the Kung Fu and Taichi Institute.