the tangible

The next day I accompanied him to the ruin. There were several epicentres where everything had been reduced to dust, surrounded by tiny fragments. Except for pipes and wires no recognisable objects remained. Everything which had been assembled during a lifetime had gone without trace, had lost its name. An amnesia not of the mind but of the tangible.

- excerpt from From A to X by John Berger

A declaration of love to the cradle of civilisation

Text is the usual point of departure for productions by theatre company STAN. Not this time. On stage are three dancers (Tale Dolven, Liz Kinoshita and Federica Porello), Syrian actress Rojina Rahmoon, Palestinian actor Eid Aziz and Belgian actor Frank Vercruyssen.

There is music by Checkpoint 303, Mesh Kerbaj, Ramallah Underground, Glenn Gould, Burial, Vex’d, John Zorn, Nasseer Shamma, Rima Khcheich,... There is visual material by the Palestinian artists Yazan Khalili and Ruanne Abou Rahme. And perhaps also text...

Perhaps the tangible becomes a declaration of love to the triangle Beirut-Palestine-Bagdad, the cradle of civilisation, which – injured and trampled underfoot – continually rises from the ashes, a personal view with dance as point of departure. Because dance is capable of expression when words fall short.

For the creation of this new production, STAN went to the Fertile Crescent, or Al Hilal Al Khaseeb, the region in the form of a waxing moon that once encompassed the eastern Mediterranean region, ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, also known as ‘the cradle of civilisation’. Today this region corresponds roughly with modern Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Southeast Turkey and Southwest Iran.

[This production was previously announced as The Fertile Crescent.]