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«Collapse in 5 acts: there is porn of it»
Simone Aughterlony

DancePerformance

Wafts of mist, enigmatic figures, a landscape in ruins. The new work by Aughterlony explores the aesthetics of collapse.

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  • Fri 27/0220:00

    Premiere followed by a snack and drink reception

    Halle

  • Sat 28/0220:00

    Halle

  • Mon 02/0320:00

    Halle

  • Tue 03/0320:00

    Halle

Aughterlony 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. Copyright: Ali Haji
  • Surtitles in DE

Amid the fog of fallen pipes and broken monuments, enigmatic figures: the King, the Narrator, the Fairy of the Radical Sort, the Tourists, the Horse, the Architect. Together they detail a space of opacity, erotics and fragile connections. Drawing from Jack Halberstam’s theory of ‘unworlding’ 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 dramaturgy of the performance is driven by an uncanny numerological significance of the number 5: interweaving 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.

The premiere will take place on 27 February, followed by a snack and drink reception.

Information on accessibility and language

  • Stepless access

  • Duration: Approx. 75 minutes

  • Age: 18+ years

  • Language: In English spoken language

  • Surtitles: Surtitles in standard written German and English and descriptive surtitles in standard written German

  • Content Notes: Video projections of animated explicit pornography; scenic depiction of sexual acts including references to BDSM practices; performer eats fake glass; fully undressed performer

  • Sound: Sound-intense work including the overlapping of several sounds/noises and text as well as loud music with palpable bass vibrations, sometimes creating an unsettling atmosphere; sudden noises from stage objects; use of a trumpet

  • Light: Light-intense work including lighting stages from complete darkness to full brightness, use of flashlights and neon tubes, pulsating lights in various colours as well as flickering lights (including strobe-like effects in one scene)

  • Video: Large-scale moving video projections on all three walls and the floor, sometimes including flashing or flickering images

  • Smell: Over the course of the performance, a large amount of fog is used in the space. Additionally, there is an open fire on stage in the first part of the performance. 

  • Other sensory triggers: Use of fake blood and fake teeth

  • Audience and interaction: Short, voluntary interactions with audience members including the distribution of food. Parts of the performance happen very close to the first row of the audience. A plastic curtain will briefly touch audience members in the first row.

  • Further information on accessibility will be provided continuously until the premiere.

  • There are many characters on stage.

    For example, a king, a narrator, a fairy and a horse.

    The room looks broken.

    It is foggy and mysterious.

    The play is about collapse.

    It asks: What happens when old systems break down?

    For example, fixed ideas about gender, body and progress.

    The number 5 is important in the play.

    It stands for 5 stages of grief.

    It stands for 5 stages of decay.

    And it stands for 5 acts in the play.

    The play shows destruction.

    It also shows new possibilities.

    The audience is encouraged to create new ideas from broken things.

  • Concept and research:
    Simone Aughterlony, Jen Rosenblit
    Creation and performance:
    Mickey Mahar, Leah Marojević, Joseph Wegmann, Simone Aughterlony, Lucia Gugerli
    Guest performer:
    Gilbert Aughterlony
    Light and video:
    Joseph Wegmann
    Musical composition and live performance:
    Lou Drago
    Narrator Voice:
    Miguel Gutierrez
    Dramaturgical advice:
    Joshua Wicke
    Costume design:
    Lenna Stam
    Trumpet recordings:
    Shems Bendali
    Technical management:
    Jan Olieslagers
    Production assistant:
    Thalia Tulkens
    Photography:
    Simon Courchel
    Administration and Production:
    Umar Hallawi
    Produced by:
    Imbricated Real
    A Co-production by:
    Gessnerallee (Zürich), Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), Tanzquartier (Wien)

  • City of Zurich Culture, Cultural Office of the Canton of Zurich, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Anne-Marie Schindler Foundation, Else v. Sick Foundation, Corymbo Foundation, SIS – Swiss Performers' Foundation, 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, Ondrej Vidler, 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

  • Simone Aughterlony (1977)  is an independent artist based in Zurich and Berlin, working predominantly in dance, performance and visual art contexts. They have been devising queer-spirited choreographic works over the last twenty years. Engaging with alternative forms of kinship inside their process, new constellations emerge as possibilities for reconfiguring a culture of togetherness that fosters both familiar and unknown quantities. Simone’s works playfully compose with representation and its saturation, seeping into and embracing the phenomenology of mis-recognition and the absurd. In recent years the works «Biofiction», «Uni * Form» (co-authored with filmmaker Jorge León) and the collaborative project, «Everything Fits In The Room» with artist Jen Rosenblit, a commission from HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, have toured extensively. These works were presented at the 2018 Venice Biennale Teatro for an invited artist focus. In 2020 together with Marc Streit they founded Imbricated Real, an independent structure for contemporary art practice. Aughterlony was the recipient of the CantonZurich Kultur prize in 2023.

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