Performance "Future Tongues", choreography by Ania Nowak, at Making Life in the Ruins festival in Berlin

Performance: Future Tongues
Choreography by Ania Nowak
Presented during the Making Life in the Ruins festival in Berlin

The starting point of the performance is the myth of the Tower of Babel. The piece rewrites this myth, speculating on what might remain of human communication in the future. It also references the 1982 futuristic porn film Cafe Flesh, in which, after a nuclear explosion, most of humanity loses their sexual drive—while the few who retain it perform sexual acts on a specially designed stage before a fascinated audience.

Understanding language as a practice of constant negotiation of difference, the performance explores analog forms of communication such as touch and speech. Intimacy—the pleasure and discomfort of closeness—is put on display. It functions like a language falling out of use, becoming a relic of the past in today’s (post-)pandemic reality of social distancing.

What forms of embodied communication do we need today? Who has, and who does not have, the right to speak their own language? Can we trust our collective senses before submitting to the authority of knowledge and power?

More information: https://sophiensaele.com/en