Water of Love is a performance I did at Varia on the 17th of January, and is part of the long-term project School of Love and Chaos. Length: 1 hour an 45 minutes. With co-performers mitsitron, Stephen Kerr, and Luke Deane (my co-performer in the previous phase of the project, Bad at Love). Joseph Knierzinger (from Extratonal and Klankschool) made sure we sounded good. Amy Gowen (from HumDrumPress) introduced the concept of the Open Book, a way to invite the audience into the early stages of a long project, witness the unfolding of the creative process, and allow vital feedback to influence its future iterations. Videographer: Matilde Stolfa. Supported by CBK and SHED.

School of Love and Chaos, which is the umbrella project, weaves together themes of love and ecological threats through autofictional storytelling, science fiction, poetry, song and performance, using cities closely linked to water—Rotterdam, New Orleans, Venice, and Rome—as its narrative landscapes. The threat of annihilation (the fear of losing physical and/or emotional control) is its narrative engine. At the core of this project lies a question: is there a correspondence between the material infrastructures we live surrounded by, and our intimate lives? How do the ways we, in the West, tend to handle safety—particularly in the face of ecological threats like flooding that are exacerbated by climate change—relate to how we manage romantic relationships, friendships, and community bonds? How does that feel in our bodies and in the body of my fictional and autofictional characters?

Water of Love focused specifically on the Delta Works and the many ways the Netherlands has tried to keep nature at bay. It also allowed me to reflect humorously and poetically on my life in this country. I tried to investigate how living in this landscape in this specific time might influence people’s love life. I asked a few pressing  and less pressing questions, for example: why does the Balgstuw Ramspol look like a gigantic condom? I performed 15 pieces, three of which were songs or semi-songs, while the rest was a mixture of prose, poetry, emails, and even a dialogue with ChatGPT.  This performance was also a first attempt at representing and embodying (or often failing to embody!) on stage the emotional and spiritual transformation that I believe might be necessary to confront some of the ecological and political challenges human beings are currently being confronted with.

excerpts (part 1, 2 and 3)