After Life
xx FOCUS SIMONE AUGHTERLONY
Switzerland/Germany/Great Britain / 2013 / 75'
Performance
After Life is the second duo in a trilogy
that marks the biography of a body by means
of existential states: its presence in flesh and
blood, post mortem and in view of im/possible
futures. In After Life, the performers appear as
obfuscated post bodies that hover and haunt
what is literally the other side of the spatial
design where the first duo Show & Tell played
out. Nic Lloyd joins Simone Aughterlony on
stage as iconic representations of body and
soul. Together they question a contemporary
conceptualization of the body and how that
relates to our thoughts and musings on possible
extensions of the body after life. They like the
idea of an eternal and mutating body and trust
that it is within the body that the soul resides.
Where else should it live? They physically
process stages of (de)composition in the hope
of rendering an extended history for the body
– one that continues to transform and stretch
into the future. How do the drives and urges
we experience in life resonate when there is
no body through which to fulfill them? In the
stasis of infinity, existence is not bounded by
time. Here it is rather like an animated waiting
room. There is music playing. It is soul music,
of course. And here the existence of identities is
even more vast and polymorphous than in the
horror stories they tell of the living.
Concept: Simone Aughterlony
Performance: Simone Aughterlony & Nic Lloyd
Dramaturgy: Jorge León & Saša Božić
Stage: Janina Audick
Costume: Judith Steinmann
Light Design: Florian Bach
Sound Design: Jan Stehle, Susanne Affolter
Technical Director: Ursula Degen
Stage Technician: Jan Olieslagers
Production Management: Anna Wagner
Production Assistance:
Lisa Ramstein & Marie Schmieder
In English.
Tickets: € 7 / € 5
A production by Verein für allgemeines Wohl, in coproduction
with Gessnerallee Zurich and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin.
Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton
Zürich and Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council.
PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) International Guest
Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the
Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and
the Media on the basis of a decision by the German
Bundestag, Stadt Zürich Kultur, Kanton Zürich Fachstelle
Kultur and Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
Organisation: City of Women in collaboration with Bunker / Old Power Station - Elektro Ljubljana.