23, 24.01
Salva Sanchis | Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear
Salva Sanchis | Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear
Each time any one of us encounters an object, the visual system begins a constant questioning process. Fragmentary evidence comes in and the higher centers say, “Hmmmmm, maybe this is an animal.” Our brains then pose a series of visual questions: as in a twenty-questions game. Is it a mammal? A cat? What kind of cat? Tame? Wild? Big? Small? Black or white? The higher visual centers then project partial “best fit” answers back to lower visual areas including the primary visual cortex. In this manner, the impoverished image is progressively worked on and refined (with bits “filled in,” when appropriate). I think that these massive feed forward and feedback projections are in the business of conducting successive iterations that enable us to home in an the closest approximation to the truth. To overstate the argument deliberately, perhaps we are hallucinating all the time and what we call perception is arrived at by simply determining which hallucination best confirms to the current sensory input. V.S. Ramachandran
“Objects is mirror are closer than they appear” the fifteenth production of Belgian based choreographer Salva Sanchis, created with performers Tarek Halaby, Manon Santkin, Georgia Vardarou and sound designer Peter Lenaerts, is a piece that deals primarily with the dichotomy between reality and appearance. Using dance among other forms of expression, the piece reflects on how appearances not only refer to a reality, but they actually become our reality. The piece draws inspiration from recent advances in cognitive neurology, especially on the study of Out of Body Experiences (OBE). Out of Body Experiences are caused by a momentary loss of coordination of the neural mechanisms that match our body image with the information coming from joints, muscles and organs. This can provoke the feeling of floating outside of one’s body, or even seeing one’s body from a different point in space. OBE puts into question the location of identity, and whether identity is something that can actually be located in space in the first place, be it in or out of the body. The work is also informed by the impact in popular culture of famous impostor cases as well as the belief in alien contact and alien abductions. Instead of limiting itself to a mere report of all these themes, the performance becomes itself a strange object that defies interpretation and that invites us to re-evaluate our perception of the world and our place in it.
credits
Choreography: Salva Sanchis
Created with and performed by: Tarek Halaby, Peter Lenaerts, Salva Sanchis, Manon Santkin and Georgia Vardarou.
Sound design: Peter Lenaerts
Lights: Salva Sanchis and Tom Van Aken
Production manager: Hanne Van Waeyenberge
“Objects is mirror are closer than they appear” is a production of Latent Fuss vzw, co-produced by Kaaitheater Brussel, Mercat de les Flors Barcelona, Trafo Budapest and Rosas.
23.01.09
- 20u3024.01.09
- 20u30