A Traveling Medicine Show & Empanada Stand
dOCUMENTA(13)
Kassel, Germany
August 2012
created with Elizabeth Dorbad
A mystical bodily installation in a small gray house at the edge of the railway staion of dOCUMENTA(13) was the setting for performance, food, slivovitz, and ideas, evoking various emotional states and serious discourse. Upon entering the space participants completed "medical forms"with questions related to self and public bodies in failing economic and ecological systems. They recieved slightly illogical tasks such as "bounce ball", "listen to hearts" or "disrupt system". With audience and artists merged, a cacaphony was punctuated by serving empanadas-- the quinetessential nomadic food --and "treatments", ranging from singing lullabyes to cool towels. In the arc of the piece, we kept the underlying questions of bodies in failing economies and economic systems on the table by pausing to listen to responses on forms and dialogue. At one point we enacted the collapse of the impassioned doctora and turmed the energy back to the wild minds of the group. This project was a collaboration with Elizabeth Dorbad,with Ursula Herzborne and Spiros Pasterakis of the Berlin based Grotest Maru Theater Troupe, and Dinali Schmidt. Dinali Schmidt died in 2012 in a avalanche in Nepal, a tremendous loss to us and the world.
Rest in Peace, Brother Dinali
