In the middle of Nowhere - your absence fills the space
Almost a decade after Overseas Simone Truong has the desire to go back to her history of migration. Moving away from the concept of identity, having been confronted with the recent refugee crisis in the world, she has the desire to open up the idea of migration, one that is going beyond the tragic story telling and political accusations, but researches rather the physical and emotional state of bodies in migration. Here, migration is more than just changing one’s place of residency – voluntarily or by force – it’s, also in a broader sense, a moment in transition, a rupture with the familiar, a departure into the unknown, a destabilization and, therewith, a feeling of being lost.
In the middle of Nowhere – your absence fills the space is an invitation to a shared sensual experience: The space is shared equally by the spectators and the performer, in which bodies oscillate between proximity and distance and coincidental encounters happen. The time of the show is divided in two parts, one in light with performers that have closed eyes, one in darkness with performers singing while moving around. The shared sense of blindness as a red line throughout the piece confronts us with the unknown and allows us to feel fragile. In the midst of this darkness, Simone Truong, asks the questions: how can we dance together? how can we find each other? How can we give comfort to each other? Her answer is by touch and listening, skins, gazes, the vibration of singing voices that touch and have to listen to each other mutually. It’s an attempt to create a new form of community which no one chooses, and no one can control. Its beauty is revealed through its porous and ephemeral character.
Now more than ever, we long for comfort, intimacy, and a sense of community in the middle of this vast experience of lostness. In the middle of Nowhere – your absence fills the space immerses you exactly in this experience.
Concept,Choreography Simone Truong Creation, Performance Cosima Grand, Jeanne Gummy, Anna Massoni, Roger Sala Reyner, Adina Secretan, Tarek Talaby, Simone Truong Dramaturgy Igor Dobricic Voice Coach, Outside Eye Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias Light, Stage Patrik Rimann Costume Povilas Bastys Production management Antje Czudaj Video, Photo Flurin Bertschinger
A production of the association Overseas in coproduction with the Gessnerallee Zurich
Support City of Zurich Kultur, Canton Zurich Fachstelle Kultur, Pro Helvetia – The Swiss Arts Council, SSA Societié Suisse des Auteurs, Ernst-Göhner-Stiftung, Canton Solothurn Amt für Kultur, Migros-Kulturprozent, Sophie und Karl Binding Stiftung, Stiftung Anne-Marie Schindler, Stiftung Corymbo Residency Stiftung Sitterwerk, Dampfzentrale Bern