Dear companion of the OPEN STUDIO,

unfortunately we cannot meet at the moment. The pandemic shakes our lives and we need to keep distance to mitigate its threat. How can we keep in touch anyway?

I don't know at the moment how our OPEN STUDIO project will go on and I can't and don't want to continue to work as usual. But I don't want to wait either, assuming that the Corona crisis is just a break after which everything will be the same as before. This message is a first step, a start, to get in touch with you again and to continue working carefully. Therefore, I would like to share thoughts, inspirations and questions with you, in the hope that we will meet again soon to continue to experience the medium of dance together.

From a telephone conversation with my dramaturge Igor Dobričić, who is currently in Berlin and works from his desk:

What does it mean to be close to someone right now?
Is there a quality in the distance?
What are the requirements of proximity?
How do we feel psychological, spiritual, mystical proximity?
What is the value of the empty space between us? How do we fill it?
What role do the gaze and eye contact play?
How does distancing animate and redefine public space?
How do we experience our body while keeping distance?
How do we live our lives in relation to wishes, dreams, plans that we have lost?
Do we want to continue after the crisis as before?
Is the situation a preparation for further crises that threaten us?

April 2020: The theater is a ruin, there is no longer an audience, no one is coming.
The future is uncertain and no longer a predictable project.
Being isolated is a privilege.
In Chile, feminists are redefining the curfew and declaring it a strike.
After the pandemic, the air between us, the talking, breathing and touching will be filled with limits, concerns and taboos and must be experienced anew.
Remember moments of closeness!
Let us take care of each other.
We are alone together.
Leave No One Behind!

I also send greetings from my artistic partners Nina Wollny and Chris Leuenberger, with whom I would actually have spent time together in the studio last week.
Please stay healthy

Jenny