Festival Theaterformen: The Practice of Emptying Space

Like many artists I have had work, touring, and other projects cancelled as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic and in response to regulations about distancing. One festival I am particularly sad not to be able to attend is Festival Theaterformen in Braunschweig, where Ways To Submit would have been part of the programme in July. In the absence of being able to host live performances, Theaterformen have conceived of an online festival, A Sea of Islands, for which I making an alternative contribution.

The practice of emptying space will be live online from 7pm (CET) on the 4th July until midnight on the 6th: theaterformen.de.

More about the new project:
Ways To Submit is a live performance that makes an invitation to the audience to have a physical fight. It asks strangers to be in close physical contact with the performer, and with each other. However much we try to not allow the current conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic to be the lens for our every experience, to separate our making and thinking from present limitations, it’s hard to be rid of the question: when will this be possible again? The practice of emptying space is the consequence of this preoccupation, an inter-disciplinary reflective essay in three pieces: a text, an image series, and an audio piece. It is part archive, part invitation, part meditation on fighting, power, and absent bodies.