Escape Act
Does gender have a voice? Or can we observe bodies without ascribing a gender or age – in short, value – to them? In Escape Act, Alexandra Bachzetsis invites Anne Pajunen, Sotiris Vasiliou, Jia-Yu Corti, Tamar Kisch, Owen Ridley-DeMonick, Gus Solomons, Philippe Beloul, and Johanna Willig-Rosenstein to investigate the mechanisms of desire, working with philosopher, activist and dramatist Paul B. Preciado’s poem entitled Love is a drone.Using drag, vogueing, striptease, YouTube tutorials as well as the triadic ballet by Oskar Schlemmer, seven bodies and many more objects try out new constellations, like surrealist ready-mades. Within the dominant logic of desire, bodies are male or female, real or fake, successful or failures, and objects serve as disposable prosthetics. Can we overturn that logic? With a great sense of irony, the production presents hyper-stereotyped gender identities, only to deconstruct them completely. What Escape Act demonstrates is that signs are not to be trusted.
• Alexandra Bachzetsis is a choreographer and visual artist. Her multidisciplinary oeuvre focuses on the construction of images and bodies in mainstream popular culture. Her work has been shown in theatres, museums and art biennales. In 2010, she presented Dream Season at the Kaaistudios, as part of the first WoWmen.
‘Rather than representing the productions of desire from the point of view of identity, of the norm and the normal, Escape Act invites us to pay attention to the failures and the cracks, but also to the lines of flight, to the escape acts.’ – Paul B. Preciado
concept & chorepgraphy Alexandra Bachzetsis | creation & performance Alexandra Bachzetsis, Jia-Yu Corti, Tamar Kisch, Owen Ridley-DeMonick, Gus Solomons/Philippe Beloul, Johanna Willig-Rosenstein, Sotiris Vasiliou | text Paul B. Preciado (Excerpts from the poem Love is a drone) | collaboration, dramaturgy, movement director Anne Pajunen | collaboration, dramaturgy, objects Sotiris Vasiliou | communication design Julia Born | photography Blommers & Schumm | costume design Christian Hersche & Ulla Ludwig | music Lies Vanborm, François De Meyer (Audiotheque) | music research Anna Zaradny | light design & technique Patrik Rimann | production/association All Exclusive | management Anna Geering | production Marina Miliou | production assistant Felipe Katotriotis | casting assistant Daphni Antoniou, Claudia Toggweiler | supported by Stadt Zürich, Kanton Zürich & Pro Helvetia-Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater BS/BL, Société Suisse des Auteurs, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Migros-Kulturprozent, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, kurimanzutto | co-production Gessnerallee, PACT Zollverein, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Les spectacles vivants du Centre Pompidou, Kaserne Basel, Tanzhaus Zürich
+ post-performance talk on Fri 6/03, moderated by Anna Vleeshouwers
