CONVERSAS COM FORMIGAS (CONVERSATIONS WITH ANTS)
Texts
Kari Hukkila
Creation
Milene Fialho, Kari Hukkila, Sanna Kekäläinen, Esther Latorre and Catarina Carmo
Translation
Margarida Madeira
Performance
Milene Fialho, Fran Martínez, Catarina Carmo and Sanna Kekäläinen
Original soundtrack
Surma
Soundscape design
Jaakko Kulomaa
Illustration
Alex Gozblau
Lighting design and technical operation
Diogo Graça
Set design
Pedro Silva
Production management
Inês Oliveira
Executive production and photography
Catarina Lobo
Co-production
teatromosca and Leirena Teatro (Portugal), Colectivo Glovo (Spain) and Kekäläinen & Company (Finland)
Funding
Portuguese Republic – Culture | DGARTES – Directorate-General for the Arts, Sintra City Council and Municipality of Leiria
Estimated duration
60 minutes
Age rating
16+
"Conversations with Ants” is an international co-production between the Portuguese companies teatromosca and Leirena Teatro, Colectivo Glovo (Spain) and Kekäläinen & Company (Finland).
Premiere in Portugal: February 2026
Premiere in Galicia (Spain): January 2027
In a format that brings together diverse artistic disciplines, the project seeks to celebrate international collaboration between four artistic partners from three different countries: Leirena Teatro and teatromosca (Portugal), Colectivo Glovo (Spain) and Kekäläinen & Company (Finland).
This ambitious initiative bases its dramaturgical approach on the images that ants can offer us. Ants are one of the oldest living species on Earth, with intricate social structures and a tireless work ethic. The way they organise themselves, build paths, create networks and behave within their colonies serves as a powerful metaphor for a project that builds its collective vision through the encounter of artists and collectives with unique perspectives, seeking to transcend geographical and cultural borders.
The behaviour and organisational structures of ants, as well as those of other social insects such as bees, have been researched and applied to the organisation of people, the division of tasks and even the development of corporate strategies, as noted, for example, in the 2001 Harvard Business Review article “Swarm Intelligence: A Whole New Way to Think About Business”.
Drawing on Kari Hukkila’s text, the aim is to establish a “dialogue” with something that will not hear us or respond to us, yet is present and even necessary for our existence, despite the fact that we do not truly know this “other”.
In short, human beings know very little about ants. It is estimated that approximately half of all ant species have yet to be discovered and that, of the roughly 15,000 classified species, only around 50 have been studied to any significant extent.
Thus, this dialogue, as necessary as it is impossible, becomes instead a dialogue with our own memory, our own assumptions, our own future and the basic conditions of our existence, always revolving around ants.
