“PANDORA” is the title of Paula Pau’s and Andras’ (f.k.a Igor Meneses Sousa) latest collaboration. This in-progress solo work is a development of Paula’s “YOU SIT, I PERFORM” for the APAL@AmnAsia residency in 2023, where the artist intertwines the experience with her trans womanhood with the myth of Pandora and Thai Transgender Cabaret shows. Performed at PACT Zollverein on October 5th, 2024, the piece was choreographed and soundtrack by Andras and peformed by Paula Pau.
Constantly shifting between the factual and imaginative, the performance invites the audience to enter and to help shape the world of Pandora: a liminal space between a fictive cabaret and the theater. There is where Paula embodies the character whose name titles the piece, a showgirl created from her childhood memories from cabaret visits in Bangkok and the mesmerization from those encounters. In this made-up space is also where the performer works through the topic of self-objectification as means of both empowerment and oppression, challenging the platonic gaze of the spectator over her body and inherent narratives whilst yet aiming to fulfill its fantasies. Where does theater and fetish intersect? In the work, Paula Pau goes on a journey of becoming and unbecoming different ideals of femininity, whilst tapping into her Southeast Asian cultural heritage and its nuanced relation to trans-feminine and cross-dressing performance and its implications.
TRAILLER OUT SOON‘
Andras 