Archiving the “Thing”: Teatro da Vertigem’s Bom Retiro 958 metros

An archive is a place, a thing/object, and a practice. But can “things” be archived at all, or do they rather belong to a world of endless transformation? Do “things” have a life of their own that exceeds the limits of the archive? A massive immersive performance, Bom Retiro 958 metros by Brazil’s theatre company Teatro da Vertigem, suggests that matter, although martyred by constant change and transformation, resists disappearance and calls into question what we presume remains, and what we assume disappears, from culture.