Choreographer, director, dancer, actress, and performer, with a career spanning 30 years, renowned international artist Maura Baiocchi arrived in Bucharest for the first time in October, at the invitation of the first group promoting and developing the ecoperformance methodology in the country’s artistic environment—Plastic Art Performance collective. Director and founder of the Taanteatro Company in Brazil and creator of the working formula of “choreographic theater of tensions,” founding director of the International Ecoperformance Film Festival, author of over 80 choreographies, plays, and performances, and co-author of numerous titles, including the first book on butoh dance in Portuguese, Maura Baiocchi brings her work experience to the Romanian stage and talks in this podcast about ecoperformance and the importance of artists’ involvement in ecological movements and actions.
Iulia Dromereschi from aivimedia.hub is this episode’s guest. We start from talking about the eco-performance intervention called ECO-CAPRA, a project critically addressing the issue of waste and environmental impact during holiday celebrations in Romania, highlighting the significant amounts of food and single-use plastic waste generated. The episode reflects on traditional rituals like the Goat Dance (Jocul Caprei), reimagined by the collective as a performative awareness-raising act. The episode underscores the idea that artistic expression and performance can be powerful tools for social change, especially in addressing environmental issues by engaging communities in shared cultural narratives.
This episode features our very own collective member, Ioana Buraga, multi-talented artist. Together, we continue the exploration of environmental themes related to waste and sustainability. We delve into the urgency of addressing waste not as something to be discarded and forgotten but as an ongoing problem embedded in social and ecological systems. It reflects on the cultural and artistic interventions that reshape perceptions of waste, emphasizing eco-performance art as a means to provoke awareness and change around material consumption and environmental degradation. The episode highlights collective and creative responsibility toward waste, framing “away” as a myth and advocating for active engagement with sustainability practices through art and community actions.
Today is about Marta, from “Mai Mult Verde” association, the person behind numerous articles, studies and initiatives from one of the biggest ecology NGOs in Romania, creator of environmental awareness campaigns and gatherer of forces. The episode discusses themes of environmental responsibility, circular waste economies, and the social and ecological consequences of consumer waste. It highlights creative and activist approaches toward understanding and addressing waste beyond traditional recycling, emphasizing a collective responsibility and innovative art performances to raise awareness about sustainability and the illusion of “throwing something away” as a final act
Plastic Art Performance collective co-founder, GCV takes the mic. The episode centers on the collective ongoing artistic investigation called “Eco Movements,” which addresses the environmental crisis through choreographic and eco-performance methods. The collective explores the pervasive impact of pollution and waste on daily life and promotes a deeper connection between the natural environment and the human body as inseparable elements. The episode highlights how artistic expression can foster environmental awareness and social change by making abstract ecological issues visible and tangible, while also nurturing a sense of community and activism rooted in cultural practice and embodied experience. The work emphasizes that waste and pollution are not distant problems but ongoing, shared challenges that require active engagement and rethinking collectively how we live with the environment.
