Raquel André is a collector of rare things. 

In Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, Rio de Janeiro, Loulé, Minde, Paredes de Coura, Sever do Vouga, Ovar, Manaus, and Barreiro, she has collected content from close to 150 encounters. People of all nationalities, genders, and ages have accepted the invitation to meet her at someone’s flat for an hour to construct a fictional intimacy to be captured in memory and photographs. The photographs and details of these encounters are the contents of a performance that tells a story about what this collection of relationships may mean. Just what are we looking for when we meet someone? In the age of e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, and Grinder, we have all become experts at faking intimacy. We post what we eat, who we kiss, where we go, what we’re thinking and reading, what we like and dislike—all translated into views, likes, and comments.

 Raquel’s collection is the results of an obsessive fascination with the terabytes of information that exist in each minuscule movement of another person. It is a reflection on intimacy that is explored one-to-one and amplified for the stage, all real and all fake. Each time the door opens for a new lover, Raquel André dives into an abyss that is the other, and reality and fiction merge. Each encounter is real. The flirtation is real. The intimacy may feel more real than fiction. And Raquel, the obsessive collector, holds on to the moments of each meeting, the rare objects of her peculiar collection, ephemeral and infinite.

Collection of Lovers first premiered in 2015 at the studio theater of the D.Maria II National Theater in Lisbon (Portugal) in co-production with TEMPO Arts Festival in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).