A Menina e o Pote

A scenography made of 500 inflatable plastic bags

set design inflatables

Direction_Fernanda Bond e Valentina Homem
Set Design_Marina Kosovski
Set Design Assistant_Lívia Vreuls

The itinerant performance “A Menina e o Pote” is an adaptation of the short story A Menina Amarela by Valentina Homem, inspired by its previous unfoldings: an audiovisual installation presented at Instituto Cultural Oi Futuro and the animated short film directed by Valentina and Tatiana Bond, released at the Cannes Film Festival and awarded multiple international prizes. The story tells of a girl whose large pot suddenly breaks, revealing an immense void. She then embarks on a journey around the world to rebuild it, encountering unknown places and beings along the way. In A Menina e o Pote, the adventure takes place in the Brazilian forests.

In 2016, geologists from around the world gathered in South Africa to discuss whether the Earth had entered a new geological epoch. They concluded that human activity had altered the planet so profoundly that we are now living in the Anthropocene, a new era in which human action is dramatically reshaping the Earth’s ecosystems. Within this context, the experience of “breaking” and “rebuilding” lived by the character is directly connected to the environmental transformations caused by human activity.

Philosopher Bruno Latour highlights the relationship between melancholy and this new geological era, pointing to the disconnection between the scale of the problem we face and our individual capacity to respond. Developing a project for children from within these complex questions becomes inevitable: this is the generation that will experience the most drastic consequences of the decisions made today. The project therefore seeks to create a space for exchange, interaction, and attentive listening, allowing children to learn from those who best understand survival: nature itself.

Within this context, the set design was conceived while also responding to the pragmatic constraints of a traveling production: it needed to function simultaneously as a large projection surface while remaining lightweight and easily transportable. The central concept was to use inexpensive disposable plastic bags as inflatable construction modules, from which the entire set was built. For each performance, 500 recyclable plastic bags composed the scenography, transported entirely in just four suitcases.

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