Simone Aughterlony
Collapse in 5 Acts: There is Porn of It
Amid the fog of fallen pipes and broken monuments, enigmatic figures: the King, the Narrator, the Fairy of the Radical Sort, the Tourists, the Horse, the Architect. Together they detail a space of opacity, erotics and fragile connections. Drawing from Jack Halberstam’s theory of ‘unworlding’ the work seeks to address the aesthetics of collapse and its potential to loosen the body from systems of gender and progress. This is not a site to disregard but an abundance of situations to be reckoned with.
The dramaturgy of the performance is driven by an uncanny numerological significance of the number 5: interweaving the connection between the 5 stages of grief, the 5 stages of decomposition and finally the 5 acts of a classical play.
‘Collapse in 5 Acts: there is porn of it’, confronts architectural and structural ruination against a backdrop of the capitalist drive for renewal. It actively invites the public to consider the wreckage of all that we have built and inherited as available remnants for a romance with the future, archive of the past and a sobering recognition for where we are now.
- 2026
- Premiere: Gessnerallee, Zurich (CH)
- Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain, Lausanne (CH
- Tanzquartier Vienna, Vienna (AT)
- Concept and Research
- Simone Aughterlony, Jen Rosenblit
- Creation and Performance
- Mickey Mahar, Leah Marojević, Joseph Wegmann, Simone Aughterlony, Lucia Gugerli
- Guest Performance
- Gilbert Aughterlony
- Light and Video
- Joseph Wegmann
- Musical Composition and Live Performance
- Lou Drago
- Narrator Voice
- Miguel Gutierrez
- Dramaturgical Advice
- Joshua Wicke
- Costume Design
- Lenna Stam
- Trumpet Recordings
- Shems Bendali
- Technical Management
- Jan Olieslagers
- Production Assistance
- Thalia Tulkens
- Photography
- Simon Courchel
- Administration and Production
- Omar Hallawi
Produced by: Imbricated Real
Supported by:
City of Zurich Culture, Cultural Office of the Canton of Zurich, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Anne-Marie Schindler Foundation, Else v. Sick Foundation, Corymbo Foundation, SIS – Swiss Performers' Foundation, La Becque/Résidence d'artistes
Early Research Support:
Pro Helvetia research grant
Berlin Laboratory Research Contributions:
Mickey Mahar, Emil Ertl, LABOUR/ Colin Hacklander and Farahnaz Hatam, Justin Kennedy, Theo Nabicht, Bettina Knaup
Thank You:
Isabel Lewis and Callie’s Berlin
Zurich Laboratory Research Contributions:
Bast Hippocrate, Mélissa Guex, Ondrej Vidler, Li Tavor, Simon Grab, Felipe Ribeiro, Simon Courchel
Thank You:
Shedhalle Zurich, Lucie Tuma and team, Schauspielhaus Zurich, Rote Fabrik, Pascal Leutwyler
Ney York City Laboratory Research Contributions:
Raja Feather Kelly, Connor Voss, Effie Bowen, devyn emory, Stephen Morrison, Jack Halberstam, Avgi Saketopoulou, Felipe Ribeiro, Caroline Dionne, Ryan MacNamara, AK Burns
Support:
The Invisible Dog Art Center, Center for Performance Research, Swissnex in Boston and New York, The Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, Pro Helvetia Research Travel Grant
Thank You:
Gary Wilmes
