MortalGedragscodes in een schemergebied wanneer onze eigen levensoriëntatie op de proef wordt gesteld

When does a loved one transform from a person to a corpse? How do we relate to and deal with a body that seems to no longer carry a soul? Codes of behavior in a gray area when our own orientation towards life is put to the test.

I created the still performance Sterveling (Mortal) in close collaboration with Anton van der Sluis. It arose from a movement study starting from the poetic research question: how do you dehumanize a body using a new movement mechanism? How do you eliminate the brain and let the body do the work?

In Sterveling, a creature wriggles, crawls, and drags itself across the ground. An undefinable being that travels a hopeful path to come to a standstill at its peak. Then it is lovingly washed with rough care and prepared for the next step in the cycle of life and death.

Sterveling attempts to question the uncomfortable issue of “what happens after death.” Searching for the warmth and presence of a loved one in a body that seems cold and abandoned. What if our own cross and physical home are washed and treated, and the absence of our own will and law has entered? The moment our body is placed in the hands of another.