Not Really Strangers
“The strange stranger is a stranger to himself.” – Timothy Morton
“Not Really Strangers” is a choreographic work of choreographers/dancers: Jone San Martin, Yannis Adoniou and sound artist: Mikel R. Nieto, dealing with the ideas of Ecological thinking, the Act of listening & Repetition.
“Not Really Strangers” investigates the intrinsic conditions of possibility in ecological thought through the repetition of the speech and its unspeakable capacities. Words in space and time are expanded and absorbed by bodies. Neither words nor their sounds contain anything intrinsic to signify what they mean, it is we in the act of listening that grant meanings and therefore we discover ourselves as open beings and conditioned to the strangeness that we are ourselves.
The invitation of the act of listening is based on there is no “I” (solid, lasting, independent and unique) and it invites us at the same time to reposition ourselves as the others, the “strange strangers”. The other is infinity.
Starting from Timothy Morton’s concept of “strange stranger”, this work gives body (embodiment) to the sound and to its most intimate and vulnerable listening through words. We are, first of all, vulnerable and then we overcome that vulnerability, at least temporarily, through acts of resistance. This choreographic research proposes to understand listening as an act of resistance that shows our vulnerabilities, as deliberate expositions to power. Putting it in the words of Judith Butler: The act of listening as political resistance through the bodily act.
Improvisation is adaptation plus awareness. Adaptation, when you think of it, is like music that listens to itself. This mode of consciousness heralds a future society in which introversion and passivity would play a fundamental role.
Ecological thinking has something contemplative about it. Perhaps the ecological art of the future deals with passivity and weakness, with humility, not with arrogance. Interconnection im- plies distance and difference. In time and space.
“Care calls for repetition” – Josep Maria Esquirol
VIDEOS
“Untitled Listening Session” is a sonic situation in a concert format in which the audience is lying down and listening to different sound works mixed in live and part of “The Untitled Collection”. Every session includes several modified raw field recordings. Listening with some attention (ἐποχή) is highly recommended, but not absolutely necessary. There is not only one way of lis- tening. More info about “The Untitled Collection” is available here → https://untitled.mikelrnieto.net/.
CREDITS
Concept: Jone San Martin, Mikel R. Nieto, Yannis Adoniou.
Movement direction Yannis Adoniou, Jone San Martin in collaboration with the Dancers.
Dance: Jone San Martin, Yannis Adoniou, Tatiana Loverdou, Despoina Sanida Crezia and guests.
Sound Artist: Mikel R. Nieto.
Listening Session: Mikel R. Nieto.
Production management: Louisa Antoniou.
Production KUNST STOFF production / Yannis Adoniou
With support by Space52 Athens, Centre for Dance and Arts Dansarte Patras, Dantzagunea & Bobo Espazioa.