Tintinnabulum

Tintinnabulum explores the porous boundaries between masculinity and vulnerability through movement, spoken word, and sound. It transforms the space into a place where sensuality and the politics of masculinity converge, inviting reflection on intimacy, vulnerability, and societal expectations imposed on men. This piece is a study in self-censorship spurred by direct censorship mechanisms in countries where homosexuality is illegal—blending narrative, history, and personal research across Germany, France, Armenia, Georgia, and Brazil. It evokes a love story between a war marked soldier and a foreign visitor, tracing the evolution of their bond through trust, tension, and surrender—seeking an embodied voice that frees itself from the constraints of traditional masculinity, where being soft and exposed becomes an act of resistance. Tintinnabulum is part of Gomes’s ongoing docufiction practice and his investigation into the concept of the “soft man” as a political and corporeal subject shaped by different contexts. Inspired by the ancient Roman amulet—a bronze erect phallus with bells believed to ward off evil—Gomes reclaims this symbol of masculinity and fertility to question softness in a world demanding masculine hardness and impenetrability.

Concept, performance, sound installation, and text: Gustavo Gomes Supported by: NRW KULTURsekretariat, Cité Internationales des Arts Paris, German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), ORG.I.A (Self-Uncensored/Self-Mistake)