shut up and listen! 2025
PAST_20 → NEXT_∞
Saturday, October 18, 2025 @ echoraum, 9:10 PM
Manuel Pessoa de Lima: Square
audiovisual performance
with Manuel Pessoa de Lima
Square
Square is an original concert in which the piano interacts with a metaphysical instrument: a luminous square that floats above the piano. An abstract alter ego, the square sometimes pulses in low frequencies, sometimes as a robotic voice, like HAL 9000 from *2001: A Space Odyssey*. Conceived by composer and pianist Manuel Pessoa de Lima, Square emulates an autonomous entity, questioning the performer’s purpose and will. Like most of Manuel’s works, each performance is created for the occasion, as an eternal work in progress. In this sense, Square is a sequel to his previous solo, The Failed Pianist. If that was about failure, Square is about purpose, or its lack. In an attempt to break with self-referentiality, the square figures as a symbol of emergency, and a reminder that what really matters is never purely individual.
Manuel Pessoa de Lima is a Brazilian performer-composer creating genre-defying humorous performances, subverting his classical and academic background with irony and vulnerability. Usually performing with piano, electronics and speech monologues, Manuel unravels a mesh of fictional and biographical narratives, highlighting the conflicts and doubts around the creative process. On the intersection of Art and Life, Manuel created a performance where he lives with a piano inside a cube for ten days, executing an instructional score where musical meditation and daily chores are both equally important elements of the piece. This piece was awarded a Public Art Grant by the City of West Hollywood. Has released in 2021 the album Realejo, thru Black Truffle Records and had performed in innumerous venues and festivals with the solo “The Failed Pianist”, a comedy on his own trajectory.