SS21 symbiosis for survival | virtuallyreality

SYMBIOSIS FOR SURVIVAL

Friday 26th February

Hallé St. Michael's, 19:30-22:00

Zheng Bo

Pteridophilia 4 (2019)

Annea Lockwood

Amazonia Dreaming (1987)

La Monte Young

Piano Pieces for David Tudor #1, #2, #3 (1970)

Stine Janvin

Labouring (2014)

Elena Rykova

Life expectancy. Experience #1. The Sun (2016)

All Choreographers Are Bastards

new work (2021 - a VIRTUALLYREALITY commission)

xin

Live set

performers:

Darren Gallacher (snare drum, Annea Lockwood)

Michael Brailey (piano, LaMonte Young)

Callum Coomber (piano, LaMonte Young)

??? (performer, Elena Rykova)

All Choreographers Are Bastards: Tom Heyes (dancer, choreographer), ??? (dancer), ??? (dancer), ???

(dancer)

xin

+ next-day coffee-shop talk

+ workshop from All Choreographers Are Bastards

TICKETS

Humanity must evolve empathetically, return to the soil, frolic in symbiosis with the natural order. In the face of a mass extinction event, how may we recalibrate our relationship with our planet, with other species, with each other and our deepest selves to survive?

In an act of symbiosis, Zheng Bo films the intimacies of two young men - tongues, fingers, lips, genitals - as they trail the fronds of ferns in a moment of human-vegetal lovemaking. The eco-queer ‘Pteridophilia’ poses questions around the exploitation of plants amidst dire ecological circumstances. A rare performance of La Monte Young’s ‘Piano Pieces for David Tudor #1, #2, #3’ questions the subjugation of instruments and animals alike under man, as a piano is nurtured, embraced and fed hay like a horse.

In light of the climate, could the natural and animalistic sounds channeled by a vocalising percussionist in Annea Lockwood’s ‘Amazonia Dreaming’ by an elegy to the dying lung of the Earth? Following this, an uncanny role reversal in ‘Labouring’ by Stine Janvin as the recorded human voice squeals under the barks of a pack of ravenous dogs.

Our space-colonising fantasies have been debunked. If Earth is to be uninhabitable, how do we survive together in the darkness? Elena Rykova takes us to the void in ‘Life expectancy. Experience #1. The sun’ where seven ‘astro-performers’ communicate through breathing tubes and flickering lights, clinging on amidst nothingness, hope amongst the stars. In a new commission, Manchester-based dance company All Choreographers Are Bastards balance on the tightrope between violence and care, where survival is a struggle on the body and trust is wearisome on the mind.

To close, xin performs a live electronic set showcasing the benefits of learning from our collective histories. Their 2019 LP ‘MELTS INTO LOVE’ for label Subtext dug up age-old club subgenres from the soil - neurofunk, dubstep, hardcore - for cross-pollenation and re-planting, rave culture surviving in new sodden, bass-heavy forms.