GOING WILD

WILD is a word that has been used and misused for centuries. It brings up colonial associations of the “savage”, the “frontier” as well as the “untameable woman”. It reeks of both the civilising project of modernity and romantic eurocentric projections onto land and body. But could we possibly craft new meanings for this word? Taking these associations into consideration, this work attempts to return to a state of simplicity that inevitably opens up a web of complexity, as we contemplate and reconsider what “wildness” could feel like today.

The artistic research and choreographic process was essentially an embodied one that was developed with and within the Wandlitz Forest. Through a prolonged period of immersion, we acquainted our bodies with the technologies of soil, of rotting leaves, of damp and cold, of tree roots and insects - opening ourselves to a different understanding of time and space. Through a rigorous practice of listening, witnessing and maintaining a meditative state of embodied experience, we followed a red thread that enabled us to go beyond our conceptions of “wild” and arrive at a place where ideas and action meet in the perennial state of becoming.

It is no small task, languaging this sacred act of ritual through performance, this meeting place of the body, the earth and technologies (both ancient and new). The work gently invites both the viewer and performer to feel into the doing and undoing of a choreography that is composed of presence. Dance of silence. Dance of being and observing.

Note: all plant materials invited to participate in this work will be returned to their original locations.