Performers: Zoë Demoustier and Danielle van Vree
As part of my research, I held conversations with philosopher Rob van Gerwen about presence. Who are you in relation to another person? What is a self-image, and does such a thing even exist? How do you reveal yourself to another? Act of Presence grew out of these conversations.
Through the two performers, each spectator is invited to look at the person sitting opposite them and, in turn, to see themselves reflected in the other. The performance plays with the boundary between presence and absence. The mound of earth represents death and absence, while the act of looking at another person represents life and presence.
ACT OF PRESENCE (2018)
Going Nomad, Amstelpark, Amsterdam: 25’
Breath is the starting point for the performance. Zoë makes her inhalation audible, while Danielle makes her exhalation audible. A dialogue emerges between these two rhythms of breathing, gradually giving rise to movement. It is an intense performance requiring a high degree of concentration, interrupted at moments by a direct gaze towards the spectator.
Halfway through the performance, Danielle speaks a text containing questions about presence: how meaning is created through looking, and what absence means. Am I still here when I leave?
photos: Nils Kenninck