My dear senses, you have let me down. You too, my one and only imagination. I keep tweaking my own portrait, over and over again, and I bend the contours of everything and everyone. But does this make it the world according to me, once and for all? How does one look outside of here? And what if there’s nothing out there to look at? Is that just another thing that I project? I want clothes to protect the outside world from me. For I have come to the conclusion that there are no miracles.
A performance coproduced by The Symptoms, Trafo House of Contemporary Arts, and the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, with creative input from each of the contributors.
The central theme of the performance by The Symptoms is the clash between the reality principle and the truth principle. The anxiety generated by this conflict stays with us through our lives, poisoning our days in the guise of reality. It’s as if this paranoia were intended to force us to vest with meaning the random events of an ill-comprehended world and perceive the chaotic reality surrounding us as a subject-centric system that makes sense. However, this desperate attempt to ascribe meaning to the universe distorts our very perception, effectively preventing us from seeing things in the genuine light of their being. This is why the same thing will be seen by one person as something, and something entirely different by another.
The real-time video technology employed by this piece reacts to the position in space of a body in motion, as well as its shape, direction, and dynamics of movement, transforming the gestures of the six dancers into the projection of their anxieties and fantasies, and their web of relations into a mobile abstract painting.
In 2010 the show was awarded for the Most Original Exploration of One Segment of Theatrical Language at the INFANT festival in Novi Sad.
„Performed to thudding jazz, the piece plays out a waking dream shot through with bizarre terrors. Half-glimpsed tableaux reminiscent of David Lynch's film Eraserhead morph into surreal ballroom sequences in swimsuits and spats that pay homage to Pina Bausch. Vignettes of pain, fear and sadness swim dreamily against a lighting track of eye-popping strangeness. Extraordinary.” (Luke Jennings, The Guardian)
At the centre of this new production by The Symptoms is the ever returning conflict between what is true and what is real. Computer-generated images react to movements, position, and dynamics of the body, so graphically rendering an abstract moving picture of the distresses and fantasies of six dancers. “Innovative to the bone, Réka Szabó’s new work is based on an overwhelmingly creative idea. (…) we glimpse the outlines of an emerging opus whose originality, intellectual drive, playfulness, wit, and refinement must be declared truly exceptional by any standard you care to apply.” (Krisztina Horeczky, Népszabadság)
Director - Choreographer: Szabó Réka Dancers: Dózsa Ákos, Góbi Rita, Nagy Andrea, Szász Dániel, Vadas Zsófia Tamara, Varga Csaba
Dramaturgy: Peer Krisztián
Interactive Technology: MTA SZTAKI Médiatechnológia Csoport (Papp Gábor, Sárosi Anita, Vicsek Viktor)
Light and visuals: Szirtes Attila
Music: MÁRKOS Albert
Sounds: NÉMETH Márton
Sound engineer: Németh Márton
Costume: Nagy Fruzsina
Production manager: Paizs Dóra
Thanks to: Gideon Obarzanek
With the support of: OKM, NKA, Flórián Műhely, Artus, MU Színház L1 Független Táncművészek Társulása, Marland Kft, szinhaz.hu, tancelet.hu
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