NOTE: As with many of my performances, cameras and mobile phone use were prohibited. The piece was documented with hidden cameras; therefore the visual perspectives are limited.

Audience were invited to take a chair into the empty hall, and place it wherever they wished, inside a circle that was drawn on the floor. As it happened, they sat exactly along the line of the circle, with the exception of one woman who sat several centimeters inward. First there was one, then another, and then another—bodies destabilized, deviating, destructive, and falling—not demanding to be saved, but rather as an invitation. Through the audience's free choice to catch the falling one (or not), a wall can be broken, opening empathy and dependency among strangers.

Afterwards, some audience described the experience as feeling like an acid trip, which was precisely what was intended—the dramaturgy was devised to make palpable how social fictions are normalized through the progression of subtle levels, below consciousness, like an acid trip. Others expressed being overcome by a paranoid perception that every person had become a performer, including themselves. One woman cried—later explaining how she was shocked at what transpired, and also that was touched by her interaction with the falling audience/performers. And others spoke of feeling destabilized by the negation of rules—they understood at some point that they were free to do whatever they wanted, but didn't know how to handle this freedom they were given, and therefore suppressed their desire to act.

“I realized how easily people can be manipulated without being conscious and how difficult it is for all of us to escape the embedded social norms and rules.” –Iulia Kokkokiou (performer)

“The intensity was palpable. It was amazing to see how [they] managed to create such high tension with so few aids and accessories. I love performances that show their nucleus in the audience’s reaction, and for that it was simply outstanding.”      –Anselm Buder (audience/documentor)

Concept, Artistic Direction, Choreography: Grace Euna Kim
Performers: Jorge Bascuñan, Ardesia Calderan, Ioulia Kokkokiou, Jean Maurer, Camila Rhodi, Nora Scherer
Production assistant: Marina Fischer
Photo documentation: Anselm Buder,  Niko Neuwirth

Presented under the framework of the Frankfurt LAB Residency, and funded by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main