2010

But that man’s mind itself in all it does
Hath not a fixed necessity within,
Nor is not, like a conquered thing, compelled
To bear and suffer––this state comes to man
From that slight swervement of the elements
In no fixed line of space, in no fixed time.
–Lucretius, On the Nature of Things

Clinamen III (from Latin – small deviation; the title of the performance refers to the term invented by ancient Roman author Lucretius in “On the nature of things,” where clinamen means “unpredictable swerve of atoms” without which “nature would never have produced anything”) investigates the relationships between the subjects of theatrical conventions, such as actor, viewer, director, dramaturge, by means of a method of composition in real time. What does it mean to exist on the boundary of social and antisocial? What does it mean to perform nothing in real time? If there is always something going on in our heads, what is nothing?

This work is not about the final product or political/social activity or the horizontal connections of social communication (though none of these is excluded). It is about extreme awareness of the present moment when a person makes a decision and carries full responsibility for it.

The performance unfolds into a situation that has the potential to question the conditions of human existence as both “bare life” (body) and “political” being (citizen).