A Story of Displacement

A Story of Displacement, , Nederland

1 Oct 2018

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In Panama Pictures’ new performance, A story of displacement, we meet a group of people adrift, searching for a familiar place, a home. Teetering on uncertain ground, they risk going down and being left behind. In this no-man’s land, they rely on each other.

The search in A story of displacement takes place in an inhospitable landscape with rocky slopes and undulating floorboards, which turn out to be elastic. These springy floorboards break the performers’ fall, deform and aggravate their movements and but also sometimes make them almost fly – moments of weightlessness form a sharp contrast to slipping, tumbling and seeking grip. In this isolated landscape, other natural laws thus seem to apply, creating a new, fascinating movement idiom.

With A story of displacement, Panama Pictures presents a physical story about migration. The language of dance and circus shows both the strength and the vulnerability of the searching human being.

The music, i.a. a reinterpretation of contemporary techno, is specially composed by Strijbos and Van Rijswijk and Davide Bellotta, and performed live by cellist Alfian Emir Adytia.

Pia Meuthen: With A story of displacement, we make a plea for more collective responsibility, in response to a world in which there seems to be less and less common ground. We explore how we as a group can cope with extremely unstable situations, and sensorially demonstrate how we can lose or hold onto each other. For us, the scenography is a serious opponent, and humans are no longer just the protagonist of the story.

Our fascination also lies in creating an imaginary space, where we can create the illusion of a different gravity, where we can simulate a shifted perspective and where we can install new norms and laws of nature that offer an escape from reality.