06-12-2021 Studio - The Hague 15:27
She told me they met in Gothenburg a few weeks ago. Online on one of these dating apps. She was gonna take the plane back to the Netherlands that day and had a few hours to kill. He interested her so they decided to go on a coffee date. She was carrying heavy bags around town. She waited in the cafe. She wasn’t in the mood that much. Wanted to be alone, have her mind at rest before traveling. Packed in a cheap flight, trying to keep her ears from popping. Listening to calming music. He came in, he wore a crop top she told me. She can remember thinking “wow!”. Feeling immediate attraction due to his sudden coolness, his apparent confidence. They drank coffee and waited until she needed to leave. He walked her to the bus stop. He asked her if he could hug her. She opened her coat to create a warm space for him to enter, I imagine him slightly smaller than her. Waiting for the bus on the cold street they tried to melt into one another. Have their bodies as close to each other as possible as much physical contact as they could. She told me that they held their embrace for almost twenty minutes. His hands finding their way over her body, but hovering. She closed her eyes living this moment. When she left for the bus it felt like she had just made love on the streets. They kissed for a bit, but nothing was as intense as this embrace. Wanting to sink into each other and become one. She was very wet she told me, but not with desire but with sensuality. “So this was the truly sensual experience you went back to?” I asked. She said yes, wandering and dreaming off for a moment. Staring into the distance to than look at me again and smile.

AND A THIRD BODY EMERGES
Performance
2022

A Scenic Route To The Self
Group Show
NEST - THE HAGUE

This is the before mentioned piece I will create in collaboration with Xenia. The performance is a translation of an embodied moment that appeared in an interview some months ago. The moment you can find in my earlier proposal. In short we are gonna perform a 20 minute long hug, Xenia will be wearing a big coat in which I will disappear. During the performance we will slowly melt into one another. I will trace my hands along her body, suggesting touch underneath the coat, suggesting movement.
Last week I was thinking about the poetics of cannibalism and how the poetic, as it appears in my work, always entails violence. As our two bodies embrace and we try and eat each other, an involuntary third body emerges, this is not the combination of our two bodies forming a whole, it’s the third volume appearing. Unfamiliar to both of us. As we try and navigate our hug, we have to navigate our way around this third body too. The embrace is an attempt to transform the idea of embrace as we know it. This navigating will throw us of balance from time to time. We will remain in one fixed place in the space, but we might me moving our bodies. It’s important for audience members to not get too close, as I cannot predict if we might fall. A space that is more or less in the middle of the space, removed from other works would be ideal.
Xenia and I have not decided on the exact time yet, but we would prefer it if we could decide the time spontaneously based on the amount of visitors at the time. If the show opens at 17:00, we expect this to be around 18:30.
For this specific performance we might need to rehearse once during the day on Friday. A backstage is not needed. I will need a photographer present at the time to document the performance. I will arrange a videographer myself. This performance cannot be announced.