Fünf Fragen an Simone Aughterlony
In unserer Interview-Reihe “Fünf Fragen an …“ stellen wir die Künstler des SPIELART-Festivals 2015 vor. Diese Woche beantwortet Simone Aughterlony unsere Fragen.
Who are you?
Being slightly horrified by the restrictive nature of identity profiles I can only mention a few things that I tend to do on a fairly regular basis. I turn up most often in Zürich and Berlin. I make queer projects with artists I love and admire – these usually find a home in theatre spaces or galleries. I cry, struggle with aging, take the kids to and from school, laugh, dream new projects.
Describe your project for the SPIELART festival 2015
Uni * Form is a performance wherein the performers wear the police uniform of every city that we perform in. The uniform acts as powerful lens through which to experience the performers bodies in negotiating being together and focuses on mutual or antagonistic forces: between dominance and submission, intimacy and alienation, desire and entitlement. But more powerful than that perhaps, is that although the work is designed by choreographic thoughts and structures it is discovered anew every evening by the decision making and responses of the wonderful individuals beneath and beyond this costume and its symbolic order as they deal with their specific approaches to power.
What are your influences? Where do you find your inspiration?
With Uni * Form there was definitely a strong desire to address the current political trend to govern under a permanent state of crisis and the increase of police control that comes with that. We felt inspired and challenged to look at the function and dis-function of the police corps as a social group – to not simply critic the abuse and brutality but to unpack the power dynamics and psychic expressions that are inscribed in all bodies. Alongside this very concrete proposal there were loads of other influences including somatic practices which privilege a reorientation of the senses, a deep curiosity in new materialism theories, embracing a sense of not knowing, inviting artists to contribute to Uni * Form and embrace their different backgrounds, practices and ideologies.
Who do you want to address with your play/project?
I don’t know, it feels pretty inclusive. I mean everybody has a relation to the cops and everyone has to negotiate power relations. I hope a lot of people come to see it – I think the work makes itself available to a wide range of audience and I think it isn’t bound by a narrow gendering of theatre versus dance versus performance kind of thing.
What are you looking forward to the most at SPIELART 2015?
Encountering another audience in a totally different space and figuring out the adaptation that requires. Also catching some other work in between and sneaking a few hours at Volksbad which is another thing I tend do on a regular basis when in Munich.
Auf dem SPIELART 2015 wird Simone Aughterlony mit dem Stück “Uni * Form” zu sehen sein. Tickets gibt es ab dem 14. September an diesen Vorverkaufsstellen.