Written Portraits is a participative performance based on improvisation where, as painters do, Ox Maló portrays a person improvising a poem with his typewriter and the person gets the poem in paper as a present.
Written Portraits is a participative, inclusive, diverse and transdisciplinary performance based on improvisation. As painters do, Ox Maló (Argentina/Austria) portrays persons from the audience observing them and improvising a poem with his typewriter. Words and the portrayed person sitting in front of the artist drive this unique and unrepeatable moment into an experience of trance and personal interconnection that erases barriers, creates a sense of belonging, self-respect and inclusion, encouraging the audiences to be part of a self-discovering, self-respecting and anti-stereotyping piece of art.
Ox Maló has portrayed around 1500 people and worked with more than 100 artists who also portrayed across their disciplines (Dance, Music, Painting). In 2022 a book called The Written Portraits Poems was published, collecting poems and a prologue telling the story of the performance.
The Written Portraits Performance was in 2022 funded by the culture council of the city of Vienna, by the culture council of the Neukölln district of the city of Berlin. In 2023 it was funded by the culture council of the city of Linz, Austria. in 2023 was selected to be published on Emergency Index, the “bible of performance” which compiles the best performances of the world. in 2024 it was again funded by the city of Vienna. It was part of several festivals such as The New European Bauhaus Festival, Berlin Circus Festival, Kultursommer Wien, Tanz Haus Salzburg, Vienna Literature Festival.
The project is part of the subtheme Re-imagining identity through poetry.
Author
Ox Maló
Ox Maló is an Argentinian writer who lives in Vienna. He has lived in Argentina, the USA, Spain, France and Austria and has published four volumes of poetry: ‘Business marginal’, ‘Guirnaldas para la Jaula’, ‘The Written Portraits Poems’ and ‘Disparos y cachorros’ / ‘Shots & Puppies’ (Spanish and English versions). In 2022 he published the novel ‘La esquina de los boludos’/ ‘The corner of the jerks’ in Spanish and English versions; in 2024 he published ‘Wild Wisdom’/ ‘Sabiduría Salvaje’, an anthology of his correspondence over ten years.
He has collaborated with various artists in different forms of performance poetry, recorded songs in collaboration with musicians and performers and written and directed theatre plays. For several years, Adrián Dozetas has been performing written portraits together with other artists from other disciplines, based on the observation of people whom he portrays live with his typewriter. He has travelled the world with this performance and has taken part in major festivals.
Find out more about the poet here.
