Waar kunnen we landen?
May 2023 - Zeist, NL
Waar kunnen we landen? (Where can we land?) was a site-specific performance made with 45 social science students. The performance was a personal exploration of our alienation with our own bodies and from nature, in a time that lacks a deep connection with one's own body and earth. The source of inspiration was the work 'Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime' by Bruno Latour.
In the first chapter of the performance, the audience walked different routes in groups in the forest, experiencing intimate self-made scenes of the students. In the second chapter, the audience experienced a grand indoor performance with all the students performing poetic choreographies and scenes.
The rehearsals were open workspaces, with discussions about the topic, meetings with Extinction Rebellion, and outdoor nature explorations. We created scenes, music, and choreographies about our relationship with the earth and ourselves. The scenes were created out of personal experiences and felt values.
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"Man know thyself." The call to self-awareness is timeless. At the same time, talking about consciousness is a bit like listening to an old story. In the last 75 years we have come to have a fundamentally different relationship to the earth, to ourselves and to the cosmos. The experience of the absurd in the face of the great destinies – history, climate crises and our disappearing physical touchability – sets the mood and the idea that man is nothing more than the accidental product of chemical processes in the brain has become commonplace. Where can we land when we no longer really exist? When our bodies are an illusion, our speech is replaced by Chat GPT and our terrestrial natural world is rapidly disappearing? In meta? And is that the progress we so deeply longed for all these centuries?
Eco-criticism, ecological feminism, biodynamic agriculture, a renewed interest in earthly spirituality and living experiences show that an economic view of humanity - that has become problematic for many - and the joyless self-experience that results from it, makes us long for a reconsideration of who we are in relationship to our body and the earth. This longing for the earth, this longing for the tender and strong body, this longing for reality and for touch gains influence the moment the awareness grows that there is more to this knowledge than outdated and long-overdue contents.