Under Pressures

We find ourselves in the social, political, environmental and economic wreckage of decades of dominance of the neoliberal cult of the individual. In this context, where austerity policies have created discontent that serves as a fertile ground for far right ideas, and where the self interest of global elites has triggered potentially catastrophic climate change and the collapse of ecosystems, it is no longer possible to pretend that the individual exists in isolation. The interests of the individual are inseparable from those of the collective as well as of the ecological systems which sustain it.

Inspired by, and responding to, this complex set of interdependent relations, Under Pressures is an immersive durational performance, bringing audience, performer and set into a series of contingent encounters. The audience are invited into a post- or pre- apocalyptic shelter occupied by an individual. They embody various personae and use speech, music, lipsync, dance, games and ritual in an attempt to construct or remember a self while provoking new relations.

Production & Concept: Olympia Bukkakis, Camille Lacadee, Isabel Gatzke
Performance: Olympia Bukkakis
Set: Camille Lacadee
Dramaturgy: Isabel Gatzke
Sound: WARM collective (Caroline Ann Baur, Vanessà Heer, Tina Reden)
Light: Ariel Efraim Ashbel

Performed at Gessnerallee as part of the Im/possible Spaces series.