BLOOMING WORLD OF THE CTHULUCEN

by joining the lab team, i wanted to become part of the interest around donna haraway's book, to get to know project participants with similar views and values, complementing my knowledge with new experiences. the performance realized in collaboration with the headquarters of political criticism in warsaw was the fruit of the work of the previous months of reading together, analyzing and implementing theory into dance practice. 

dance laboratory

those participating in the project created choreography that reflects the complex relationship between people, nature and technology. an important part of the lab was the creation of a fictional vision of the future after capitalism. the utopia produced by the work is a personal attempt by the participants to ally themselves with a reality full of wars, political and ecological crises. the creative process used the pabr (performative art based research) methodology, which involves an interactive approach to choreography. participants explored movement in the context of philosophical and ecological texts, transforming these assumptions into practical dance forms.\

blooming world of chthulucene
premiere 25,26.10.2024, jasna 10, warsaw
length: 3 hours
 
a dance performance set in the aesthetics of the post-apocalypse, which was based on donna haraway's book “staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene”. the main theme of the performance is the practice of mourning and hope in a world that is inevitably heading towards disaster.
 
the stage for the performance is a large sandbox filled with peat-free earth and the electro-waste hidden there. the four dancers are transformed into human-animal symbionts that inhabit the world of the future. these creatures, called “children of compost” by donna haraway, reflect on a previous era full of doom and disaster, strive to heal the earth of its wounds, and simply play with each other, creating an image of everyday life in the chthulucene - the era to come after capitalism. 
 
the costumes for the performance were created by tasha katsuba, using second-hand materials and experimenting with dyeing fabrics, aging materials and creating accessories and applications from clay and epoxy resin. the soundtrack created by marcelisms, is a sonic looped exploration based on field-recordings of animal, bug and ambient sounds. screams, squeaks and primal sounds deliberately alternate with metallic sounds and rave beats, creating a pulsation of life in the cyclical rhythm of nature intersecting with technology.