The cultural critic John Ruskin called “pathetic fallacy” the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found in nature. It is a personification strategy that occurs in poetic descriptions of nature, when, for example, clouds seem sullen, when leaves dance, or when rocks seem indifferent. In a Land is the attempt to reverse the idea of pathetic fallacy, to let nature enter the theatre and be performed by a large group of humans on a stage.
In a Land is made of two parts. The former is a film and the latter is a performance. In the movie a lonely rear-view figure à la Caspar David Friedrich is evolving in different landscapes, looking to the far. At the end of the movie, the screen, on which the movie was projected disappears and leaves the public with an empty stage. The door gets open and a woman appears. She is looking at the spectators and the spectators are looking at her. Once the contact is established, she turns around and looks into the (imaginary) horizon. Then, a second person comes in. She places herself in another spot and the same happens. And so on. And so on.
The space gets filled with people. They are young. They are old. They are thin. They are fat. They are black. They are white. They all look into the same direction. And we the spectators are looking at them. The more people enter the stage, the more the border between stage and tribune vanishes, becomes irrelevant. At the end, there are almost as many people on stage as there are people on the tribune, looking at them.
In a Land has been produced in two different cities (Amsterdam/NL and Teresina/Br) with people from the respective neighbourhoods.
in a land (2003)
- concept & direction
- david weber-krebs
- performance
- assistance
- hester van hasselt
- artistic advice
- meindert koelink
- sound
- arnoud noordegraaf
- technique
- attila nemeth
- training & audition
- nicole beutler, ivana müller
- production manager
- josta obbink
- production
- theater gasthuis
- made possible with the support of
- amsterdam fonds voor de kunsten
in a land (2008)
- concept & direction
- david weber-krebs
- performance
- ana karolinne, marianna pacheco, cleyde silva, ines cristina, paulo borges, yoilla meyre, graca oliveira, cézar augusto vieira, thércio rocha, dimas leandro, ferdinand silveira filho, vitor sampaio, carlos henrique lira, ghilseppo yang, anchieta cardoso, fernanda de oliveira, ana julia bispo, izabelle frota, jésus carvalho, fran da luz, evaldo marinho, alexandrina, joniston david, bruno sena, jarleni silva, regina veneranda, johanna karoline, brenda virna, josé vitor, yasmin castro, claudianne oliveira, micacelle de oliveira, adelaide de souza silva, silvana santos, jorge neto, cleyson silva, angelino pinto
- assistance
- sarah vanhee
- assistance & translation
- fabio crazy da silva
- text
- arianne piraja
- technique
- ricardo sousa
- production
- regina veloso, klayton amorim
- production
- centro de criacão do dirceu
- with the support of
- FAPK