A human song

Shows

I remembered that the most important Tibetan pilgrimage is making a journey around Mount Kailash, which to that culture is sacred. Kora in Tibetan, circumambulation in English: Christians plant crosses on top of mountains, Buddhists draw circles at the foot of a mountain. I saw violence in the first act, kindness in the second; a desire to conquer versus one of understanding.

Paolo Cognetti, Without Ever Reaching the Summit: A Journey

A Human Song is part of a pursuit regarding themes of spirituality in art, which here becomes an epic community performance. A poetic event that considers the power of bodies, a sea of humans that travels through the meditative action of walking and running together, supporting one another, accompanying one another to the ground, rebelling and standing back up. The performance is inspired by the action of wandering (Gnaskor) in which there is no point of arrival. While the West seems to aim at reaching a mountaintop, Tibetan culture focuses on cyclicity: while on the one hand people climb mountains and achieve goals, on the other people tread a path in which circles are drawn while staying at the base, on the valley.

The performance is based on a single spatial movement, a human wave that moves from one end to the other of the scene, and then starts again, within an individual and collective cyclicity. The show involves 30 to 50 citizens of various ages, cultures and backgrounds, who gathered in social, political and artistic areas of the local area. Based on the context it can become an event in a public place or in a theatre. Through a choreographic score, artists and local communities meet to share pathways of collective creation.

A performance to highlight a need for change that all human beings have within themselves, and commits to activating processes to create temporary communities, to take care of one another and be inclusive.