See me!
- İdil Tatar
- 27 Şub 2022
- 3 dakikada okunur
Bu bir performans güncesidir.
29.01.2022
Name of the performance: See Me
Place: Schwankhalle
The text from the show:
"›The body was made soft to keep us from loneliness.‹ (Ocean Vuong)
On a stage reminiscent of an apartment, Tomas Bünger and Sergey Zhukov engage with their own biographies in dance. Who am I when I enter the stage, and how do others see me? How can I be myself and simultaneously a theatrical figure? In the potential space of a search for identity, two dancer meet who seek to discover themselves in the other. Based on their online productions ›Queerland?‹ and ›Speeddating #1‹, with which they were invited to the festival April Dance 2021 @IAPAR in Pune, India, Bünger and Zhukov continue their research process on how two persons can come closer to each other. They reexamine the artistic material and create a stage production between dance and theater, reality and fiction, that deals with their own queer identity. "
I saw “see me” from Tomas Bünger and Sergey Zhukov performed at Schwankhalle, Bremen.
Until 1974, homosexuality was considered as a mental illness by American Psychiatric association. It was illegal to be a homosexual and people were not free to be themselves in public without being arrested and exposed to harassment by the police officers who were patrolling gay bars. However, all those violence against people’s natural existence resulted in an uprising at the Stonewall Inn Bar on 28th June of 1969 in Greenwich Village, New York City after which many other demonstrations, riots, uprisings, and rebellions of gay liberation movement gained power so they gained support and recognition from many people around USA on their rights regardless of their sexual orientation. However, this victory still carries a sadness within the history.
The performance started with Sergey at the stage covered by the iconic hermaphrodite makeup on his face and dancing inside of a beautiful dress showing his muscular body. The story of hermaphrodite performance make-up has its roots to Albert - Alberta Karas siblings. Alberta was born in 1899 in France in a female body and brought up as a girl until her/his 10’s; then s/he started developing a female body on the left and a male body on the right. Later, Albert joined to the family in a male body and brought up as a boy until her/his 14’s; then s/he developed gynecomastia giving a female appearance on the upper body and a male on the lower. Alberta had the exercise of shaving and putting make up at one half of the body while leaving hairy at the other half. Josephin Joseph brought this half male and half female appearance to stage.
The performance gave rise to many associations and emotions in my mind. First of all, there was a door opening to the back of the stage building like a bridge between the reality of here-now and timeless-stage by bringing life to the isolated performance room. At one point, I remember the trams, cars and people passing by the door while there was another reality going on at the stage when two people were exploring themselves in the role of the other: one is turning around, presenting a makeshift worn dress ecstatically; the other was pretending to throw the guitar very aggressively. The questions like “Is it me who became completely you when I dress like you?”, “Can your order bring order to my chaotic being or would I simply die out?” arises and they became frighteningly close and real with the steel sound and the piercing light coming from the trams on the street. But also, when Sergey went outside through the door and lit a cigarette, I could not keep myself laughing at the idea that someone passing by the street would throw a spontaneous word to him and he says he is at a performance but also he himself Sergey smoking a cigarette.
Just like this photo, two of them was co-existing within Sergey dancing in synchrony; one was creating the other by bringing contrast; however, always one was Sergey and the other was Thomas, not merging or being the same. Because the dancers were bringing their reality to the stage, we as audiences were making them visible by witnessing their exploration and each time a different transformation arises within them.
There was a beautifully expressed sadness, riot and intimacy. Their openness brought courage to my unspoken dark.
Albert-Alberta Karas
Reference
https://queerland.center/
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