Mama Limonada

What happens when childhood friends meet? 
And if you could see the show they complete? 
What’s the taste of lemonade? 
And if you could see how it’s made?
Sweet, sour, and refreshing.

Maite and Lorena invite you to drink some home-made lemonade while pondering on exactly what this “home-made” entails with Mama Limonada. This multidisciplinary piece is an ode to the different influences that made Maite and Lorena who they are today as childhood friends. A collage of values. With a playful twist to invite sharing and tasting. 

Maite Dardano is a Salvadorian-German dancer and actress based in Salzburg. Her work focuses on questioning the theatrical rules: How to create a room where the observer and the actor emerge together, how far boundaries can be melted or can be played with, without it necessarily being immersive, how the so-called observers can actually be moved? 

Lorena Rode is a German visual artist and writer based in Rotterdam. Her work focuses on the act of symbiosis, on the art and quest of living with each other as living and non-living beings. She combines many materials such as glass, ceramics, wool, or silver creating scenes of unlikely neighbours.

Thursday: 20:00 – 23:15
Friday: 19:30 – 00:15
Saturday: 19:45 – 23:30

Get an insight into the project with our interview below!

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your artistic practice?
My name is Lorena Rode and I am a visual artist. My works range from creations out of glass and ceramics to soft, wool and fabric works. I like to combine many materials and handcraft with found objects. With my practice I talk about how we live with each other and care for one another. While growing up, I always had to move and I have been exposed to a lot of different ways of living with each other and treating those around us. I try to dissect those forms and propose new ways of living and caring with my artistic practice.

How did you first hear about MOMO and what made you decide to apply for this open call?
I did an elective with the MOMO Festival before in which we were asked to come up with a project to propose for the festival so I already knew about it. When I found out that this year’s open call was about identity, I thought “I have this really nice idea that I have been wanting to do for a while” and the open call was a great opportunity to do it. I am also happy that I am doing it with my best friend, Maite. She studies theatre in Austria and she is the most fiery person that I know. We have been friends since we were kids and even though we have not been living in the same place for so long, we always found a way to stay close. We have been sending each other interesting texts, songs, poetry and everything that we thought somehow related to who we are and what we do. We always wanted to move our friendship to a more artistic level. With Mama Limonada, we wanted bring our artistic practices and all these things we have been collecting together through a video installation and performance. 

Can you give us a sneak peek into Mama Limonada? What inspired this work? 
The video is mainly inspired by Fruit of Paradise, a Slovak film made in the 70s. It is a retelling of the Adam and Eve story. We also wanted to use the medium of film to create this surreal sequence of how lemonade is made, with a poetic undertone to combine our talents as actress and visual artist. I am also making the tools for the performance and the installation. In the video, you are going to watch two women making lemonade. Each time you watch the video, you are going to hear something different so the video and its meaning is always changing, just like our identities and our friendship. We will also be serving lemonade in person. While you are watching the everchanging video, maybe you will be tasting the lemonade differently as well. 

Why lemonade? 
Because we just love it! We love lemons. As kids when we were in El Salvador, we would try to replicate a popular sour candy Limonasa mixing lemon with sugar and salt and it had this very intense flavor. We also had these nicknames for each other, Lima y Limones (lime and lemon). We always felt like we were like lime and lemon, two components that are quite similar but also different and they work well together. With the lemonade, we wanted to show our love for lemons because it plays a strong role in our sense of belonging. 

You said you found this year’s theme of identity for the open call quite relevant. Can you talk more about how you explore the theme of identity with Mama Limonada? 
What I find really important is that we are doing it together with Maite. We both have moved a lot throughout our lives and there was always a physical distance between us but we have known each other almost all our lives and we somehow always stayed close despite the distance. I think that helped us both build roots and identity. When you live in many different places, in multicultural environments or when you do not have sense of physical home, you need people to be your home. Despite the constant switch of environment, language, weather zone, and customs our friendship has played its vital role in giving stability, some permanence in the forever changing outside. Allowing us to fully be ourselves with each other and feel accepted. Maite is my home so Mama Limonada is also an ode to female friendship. 

As you mentioned a little, Mama Limonada also explores themes such as femininity, kinship and care. How do you experience these themes in your own personal life and how do these experiences relate to your project? 
In my personal life and especially in the art academy, I am surrounded by many women and non-binary people and I find these relationships as a very safe and caring space. I cherish the nurturing aspect that these relationships have. I think with Mama Limonada, we also wanted to explore how our friendship has evolved, what shape it can take in the future, how the friendship of our mothers was a part of it and how it might evolve when we are mothers. That is also why it is called Mama because it has a lot to do with the idea of a mother. The idea of breast-pressed lemonade also plays with this idea of nurturing with your breasts, like a mother breastfeeding. Instead of milk, it is lemonade. I think it is also an ode to our environment which we have been very destructive towards. We need to give more attention to our environment and how dependent we are on it and maybe find new ways to give respect to all the fruits and gifts we get from it. For example, I’m collecting the seeds of the lemon to be used in this project, which you normally just throw away but I want to repurpose a lot of things and give them a second life. 

How do you anticipate about the audience’s reactions? What do you hope that they will take away? 
I really would want it to be like a little break from reality, like a surreal intervention in daily life. You are at a bar, seeing your friends, drinking so it is already like a celebration. Then, suddenly two women emerge and they want to give you something. It can be a little bit surprising and confusing but hopefully amusing as well. Hopefully when you watch the video and you see the story of how it was made, it also brings a little bit awareness of what you are drinking or doing. It is like mixing fiction in the daily life, which can reshape your attention and perception. But also I just want them to enjoy the lemonade we serve, as an act of love and care. 

What are you hoping to gain or learn from participating in MOMO?
I really hope that it is going to be a fun experience and that we continue to work together in the future, not just as friends but also co-creators. I am also really excited to see the rest of the festival and good times we will have during the festival because there are also many other creative acts that I am excited to see.