Through the languages of dance/movement and spoken word, Christina Elias’ performance, Blindfolded Society, shares a critical view of contemporary society, bringing attention to the social and moral blindness brought on by an unbridled capitalist system. Loosely inspired by José Saramago’s novel Blindness, Christina Elias, blindfolded, creates in real time a narrative consisting of movement and text, a dialogue with sound extracts from Saramago’s novel which are projected into space. Blindness is a powerful metaphor (and maybe the only key) to help us understand our present society, in which the incapacity to see isn’t physical, but rather moral and ethical. In Blindfolded Society, Elias incarnates a blindfolded society put up for sale. Routines, privacies, intimacies, the body, beliefs, and even the soul—are all for sale. By using blindness as a metaphor to explore moral and ethical neglect, this performance criticizes the commodification of individuals, communities, and the environment in contemporary capitalist societies, stressing the invisible suffering and exploitation.
Blindfolded Society will be performed at the 2025 Biennial Performative Arts Meeting – (Re)union. Organized by the cultural association Rede More, this is one of our partner festivals as part of this year's In Transit Program.