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Simone Aughterlony

Collapse in 5 Acts: there is porn of it

Les Printemps de Sévelin | Arsenic

  • 1h30
  • G Hearing loops
  • B Accessible to persons with reduced mobility











Collapse in 5 Acts: there is porn of it


Concept and direction: Simone Aughterlony, Jen Rosenblit
Creation & performance: Mickey Mahar, Leah Marojević, Joseph Wegmann, Simone Aughterlony, Jen Rosenblit
Light and video: Joseph Wegmann 
Musical composition and live performance: Lou Drago
Polyphonic composition: Li Tavor
Trumpet recordings: Shems Bendali
Costume design: Lenna Stam
Technical management: Jan Olieslagers
Photography: Simon Courchel: 
Adminstration and Production: Umar Hallawi (Imbricated Real), Diana Paiva (High Expectations)


Produced by: Imbricated Real
Co-production: Gessnerallee (Zürich), Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain(Lausanne), Tanzquartier (Vienna)
Guest performances: Sophiensaele (Berlin), Kampnagel (Hamburg)
Supported by: Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zurich, Swiss Arts Council – Pro Helvetia, Stiftung Anne-Marie Schindler, Else v. Sick Stiftung, Stiftung Corymbo, La Becque/Résidence d’artistes


 

Early Research Support: Pro Helvetia research grant

Berlin laboratory research contributions: Mickey Mahar, Emil Ertl, LABOUR/ Colin Hacklander and Farahnaz Hatam, Justin Kennedy, Theo Nabicht, Bettina Knaup
Thank you: Isabel Lewis and Callie’s Berlin

Zurich laboratory research contributions: Bast Hippocrate, Mélissa Guex, OndrejVidler, Li Tavor, Simon Grab, Felipe Ribeiro, Simon Courchel


Thank you: Shedhalle Zurich, Lucie Tuma and team, Schauspielhaus Zurich, Rote Fabrik, Pascal Leutwyler

New York City laboratory research contributions and symposium: Raja Feather Kelly, Connor Voss, Effie Bowen, devyn emory, Stephen Morrison, Jack Halberstam, Avgi Saketopoulou, Felipe Ribeiro, Caroline Dionne, Ryan MacNamara, AK Burns


Support: The Invisible Dog Art Center, Center for Performance Research, Swissnex in Boston and New York, The Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, Pro Helvetia Research Travel Grant


Thank you: Gary Wilmes













Amid the fog of fallen pipes and broken monuments, enigmatic figures detail a space of opacity, erotics and fragile connections. Drawing from theories of ‘unworlding’ and the psychoanalytic anti-reparative stance, the work seeks to address the aesthetics of collapse and its potential to loosen the body from systems of gender and progress. This is not a site to disregard but an abundance of situations to be reckoned with.

The writing of the performance is partly driven by an uncanny numerological significance of the number 5: intertweaving the connection between the 5 stages of grief, the 5 stages of

decomposition and finally the 5 acts of a classical play.

Collapse in 5 Acts: there is porn of it, confronts architectural and structural ruination against a backdrop of the capitalist drive for renewal. It actively invites the public to consider the wreckage of all that we have built and inherited as available remnants for a romance with the future, archive of the past and a sobering recognition for where we are now.

About

Aughterlony and Rosenblit have shared an artistic practice spanning a decade, resulting in numerous collaborative projects in diverse configurations. Collapse in 5 Acts : there is porn of it marks a return to their co-authorship and revisits their 2017 experimental project Everything Fits In The Room, originally commissioned by Haus der Kultur der Welt and HAU Hebbel am Ufer for the festival 100 Years of Now. This immersive work, centered around a free-standing brick wall, reached audiences across Europe and the US through performances, workshops, and discourse. Seven years later, this new iteration examines how the architecture has weathered, eroded, and crumbled. Their reflections on progress and repair reveal nuanced explorations of the erotics of decay and ruination, emphasizing the necessity of un-doing and transformation.