Natural Acts

What happens when grief turns from a temporary feeling into a permanent state? In “Natural Acts”, queer, disabled, interdisciplinary artist Perel and freelance artist and sign language choreographer Rita Mazza explore non-binary and non-linear forms of mourning, searching for strategies to make a sensual experience out of absence and loss. Using visual and narrative elements, the performance explores the effects of violence across generations, drawing the audience into the subject both emotionally and intellectually. In a space that appears to be upside down and turning in on itself, the events on stage are revealed and concealed in equal measure by massive fabric constructions. The artists' choreography oscillates between movement and gesture, action and dance, text and language. Alternative seating landscapes create the conditions for the interplay of closeness and distance, challenge and sympathy between the audience and the performers. The piece shows how trauma and loss influence the brain and consequently our everyday actions by keeping the “never past” past alive. “Natural Acts” questions the prevailing culture of remembrance by employing physical experiences and offering the opportunity to confront the dark sides of oneself and of society.