Showbusiness

Photo credit: Mayra Wallraf

Is a duet about 'show business'. This choreographic work unpacks these two words to talk about interwoven economies and fantasies of performance. The business of showing up, showing off, showing down. It is an invitation by Berlin-based artist Melanie-Jame Wolf to Zürich-based choreographer Teresa Vittucci to a collaboration between their practices. Both known for their intense solo shows and 'stage presence', these two queer feminist performers explore what makes a show 'great'. Combining Wolf's expertise in text and visuality with Vittucci's fearless, intelligent approach to performance making, they examine popular entertainment, theater and politics through an experimental, interdisciplinary context. Exploring ideas of liveness, presence, hauntology, and low theory, the ambition of SHOWBUSINESS is to make a work that is critical, beautiful, darkly comedic, and affective. Audiences are invited to think about the contract between themselves and the performers they watch. Holding to light the poetics and politics of 'the Show' as a powerful and complex cultural phenomenon.


Sophiensaele 2021