2023 SEOUL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

An exploration through movement, video art and sound of the fragments of our identity

The piece arises from an out-of-body experience, which triggered choreographers Fabio Liberti and Emanuele Rosa to question the notion of personal identity. With this detached perspective of oneself, one encounters the fragmentation in the coherence of Being. Can such fractured parts coexist and function as a unity? Can we think of them as one? Would we like to? In their encounters – as well as missed encounters – the performers shape a space for reflection and present a time where past, present and future intertwine.

The piece investigates the out-of-the-body experience through the body itself, and the fascinating dualism of mind and body. Depersonalization describes the feeling of being disconnected or detached from one's body and thoughts. Thoughts and acts elude the self and become unfamiliar, actions seem poor in strength and volume. As they become the outer body spectator, the sense of self breaks down. The individual is left with the sense of powerlessness and inability to function as a whole. The piece takes this phenomenon as a starting point to create a poetic universe to question the notion of unity and coherence when applied to human personality and behavior. The piece means to bring attention to the social pressure that exists on being ONE, on presenting ourselves as coherent, predictable and, ultimately, productive in our stability. To face (or be faced with) the contradictions existing within who we built ourselves to be, can feel like an out-of-body experience: unfamiliar territory of the mind, a body we do not recognize, disconnected from the ‘whole’ sense of who we understood ourselves to be and how we relate to those around us. Perhaps the fault lies in the attempt to rationalize and categorize our sense of self in one part instead of embracing a multidimensional nature.