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.

The Biofiction Trilogy is supported by the NATIONALES
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.

Video