Four people, setting out. They are still young; each of them is though carrying their own story, their own dreams and experiences, hopes and illusions. They are on their way, each on a separate trail in a barren world. Displaced and looking for shelter, they are self-imprisoned, disoriented, exhausted. Their displacement often seems meaningless: what is their destination? Is there any destination at all? What keep them going are their memories and their desires. And then there still is – against all odds, despite conflicts and competition – the frenetic power that emerges from empathy.
Dance Days Chania Summer Performance
The Editta Braun Company presents a young team in a play that seems to have fallen out of time. A background of migration may be suspected, the atmosphere evoking eastern countries, the Balkans, Asia Minor, in a vague past or even in future, on a depopulated continent. Because everything is happening in front of impressing pictures, which come from Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s documentary Homo Sapiens showing deserted industrial landscapes, traces of a perished civilization that nature devoured a long time ago.
Against this background, empathy is not an expression of noble human kindness but has a vital role: The four are depending on each other – just like we all do in today’s shrinking and extremely interconnected world.
Editta Braun company – Performance
“Surrounded by a team of artists from Poland, Slovenia, Mozambique, Austria, France and Germany, I am sending four people on a journey. Although these people are obviously homeless, it is not about migration: We examine the dynamic process of a group of people that move through an apocalyptic world, succeeding in losing nobody.
The film of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos (The Travelling Players) has enchanted me since the early 1980s and has remained anchored in me ever since. I perceive the film’s pictorial language “choreographically” and, in its diverse association depth, is close to the art of dance.
Then I discovered the acclaimed science-fiction documentary Homo Sapiens by Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter that carries us into a world without people, but only landscapes with manmade remnants. Industrial ruins, abandoned human habitats regained by nature, all verdant. These are powerful images.” (Editta Braun)
Dance, performance, research: Paula Dominici, Kamil Mrozowski, Jerca Rožnik Novak, Ornilia Ubisse
Artistic direction, choreography: Editta Braun
Composition: Thierry Zaboitzeff
Light design: Thomas Hinterberger
Dramaturgy: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau
Coaching: Anna Maria Müller, Arturas Valudskis
Photography: Bettina Frenzel
Film-material: excerpts of Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s film Homo Sapiens
Co- production: ARGEkulturSalzburg, KosmosTheater Vienna, Posthof Linz
Funding: Austrian Ministry of Culture, City of Salzburg, Region of Salzburg
19 July
21:30 Venizelio Conservatory of Chania
Tickets: 10euro regular – 7euro student, unemployment
