Will Lopes in I Will, with his arms extended beside a stone column

01 / Presence

Betweenbody & world.

Will Lopes. Performer, director and researcher.

I Will / Foreign Portrait

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Selected works

01 / Selected works

Body, image,transformation.

Different forms. A continuous search for presence.

Performance / Film / Installation

I Will

Foreign Portrait

Migration, identity and belonging. An exhibition becomes a living space through performance.

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Butoh / Solo performance

Kagebara

2018 →

A body at the threshold of conflict, transformation and the inevitability of death.

Experimental circus / Sound

Muiraquitã
Bamboo

2023 →

Acrobatic movement, bamboo architecture and acoustic landscapes from the Amazon.

A translucent photographic portrait of Will Lopes with his hands covering his face

The body as a place of passage.

02 / The artist

A practicewithout borders.

Born in Brasília. Based in Vienna. Will Lopes is a Brazilian performer, director and researcher working across theatre, dance, Butoh, performance art and experimental circus.

His work brings the body into dialogue with photography, cinema, sound and architecture. Migration, memory and belonging run through a practice that takes shape across different cultures and spaces.

Based in: Vienna, Austria / since 2018
Education: Theatre, UnB / Communication & Semiotics, PUC-SP
Practice: Performance / Direction / Artistic research

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Will graduated in Theatre Performance at the University of Brasília in 2003 and completed his master's degree in Communication and Semiotics at PUC-SP in 2016. In 2017, a scholarship from the Brasília government supported his study of Butoh in Europe.

Since moving to Austria, he has developed performances, workshops, residencies and collaborations across Europe, Asia and South America. He is the founder and curator of the Hybrid Butoh Vienna Art Festival and a member of the artistic direction team at Das LOT Wien.

Kagebara was created under the supervision of Atsushi Takenouchi and premiered in Italy in 2018. I Will, Foreign Portrait has been developing since 2021, including the film in 2023, the performative installation at Vienna's Semperdepot in 2024, and presentations in Hokkaido and at the Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo in 2025.

Curating / Gathering / Exchange

Many bodies.A shared space.

The Hybrid Butoh Vienna Art Festival brings artists and audiences together through performances, workshops, exhibitions and encounters. Founded and curated by Will Lopes, with three editions since 2022.

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