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Takako Suzuki, Axel Dörner and Diego Chamy.
The following video consists of excerpts of an open rehearsal we did after a week-long residency, and is therefore a work in progress.
The piece is articulated around three kinds of sentences used by the performers. The sentences start with "This is...," "Now, I will..." and "Can you...?" Although these three kinds of sentences can be easily categorized -formally, the first two are declaratives and the third one is interrogative-, they can also said to be imperative sentences, since they all give commands to the person who hears them. "This is X" is never a mere declaration, but also a way of imposing a particular event interpretation on the listener. The same goes for "Now, I will do X." In this case, the speaker is commanding the listener to build up expectations towards a supposed imminent action. The third type of sentence ("Can you...?") can be a raw way of giving a command by hiding it within an interrogative form. If we take this logic to an extreme, should we say that it is not possible not to give commands when speaking?
Tanzhaus Zürich, Switzerland, November 18th, 2010
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