”Tintinnabulum” is a performance by Gustavo Gomes that explores the porous boundaries between masculinity and vulnerability through movement, spoken word, and sound. Inspired by the ancient Roman amulet—a bronze erect penis with bells believed to ward off evil—Gomes reclaims this symbol to question softness in a world that demands masculine hardness. The piece imagines a love story between a stoic soldier and a foreign visitor, tracing the evolution of their connection through trust, tension, and surrender. Blending narrative, history, and personal research in Germany, France, Armenia, Georgia, and Brazil, Tintinnabulum is part of Gomes’s ongoing docufiction practice. It transforms the stage into a space where sound, sensuality, and the politics of masculinity converge, inviting reflection on intimacy, vulnerability, and social expectations. At its core, the project is a search for an embodied voice, free from the constraints of traditional masculinity, where being soft, exposed, and fully present becomes an act of resistance.
Photo credit: Alipio Padilha
Biography
Gustavo Gomes (1988) is a performer, choreographer, and filmmaker based in Cologne, Germany. His work explores new thresholds of performance and its dialogue with other media, having been presented at venues such as Radialsystem Berlin, Schauspielhaus Köln, Insel Hombroich Museum, Ludwig Museum, and HELLERAU. As the director of Gustavo Gomes & Co., he collaborates with a multidisciplinary collective to rethink theatrical representation. He has created works for major companies and performed with the Ballet of Difference, Osnabrück Tanztheater, Braunschweig Tanztheater, and Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, working with artists such as Richard Siegal, Jacopo Godani, and William Forsythe. Passionate about the intersections between dance and film, Gomes has received the Tarkovsky Grant three times, with films screened at festivals including the Brussels Independent, Venice International, and Berlin Independent Film Festival. He has undertaken residencies at the Forecast Platform, HELLERAU, TalentLab Luxembourg, WELTKUNSTZIMMER, VRHAM Festival, EKARD Residency, Quartier am Hafen, NRWKultursekretariat and Cité Internationale des Arts Paris. Gomes is also a guest faculty member at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt and the Center for Contemporary Dance in Cologne. He is currently developing site-specific performances that merge film, movement, and sculpture to explore masculinity, vulnerability, and power, revealing the tensions between strength and fragility in contemporary society.
