The International Show: A Panikk Transatlantique

The show is about change. Change affecting oneself, one’s art, one’s collaborative partners. How far from the foundation can a project travel without losing its origin? The question has developed through stays in five cities: Berlin, Stavanger, Lindau, New York and Bergen.

Alexander Gerner and Marie Nerland say the following about The International Show: A Panikk Transatlantique: "We make plans, we work, draw diagrams, work on schedules, strategies, maps, programs. We talk about it to perfect strangers and best friends. We invite people to join us who we think are interesting. We try to find a way to escape from whatever system, whatever life we are in. Or, we simply, mindlessly, impossibly disappear for a while, a hard rupture, and wake up somewhere else, in the sweet dream of a blackout, drinking, dreaming, doing whatever too much. And maybe we still have the courage to ask someone the next day: what did I do? Then, afterwards, trying to understand what happened. We’ll never understand, that’s for sure. Ignore, forget & invent, survive and drive on, take a plane, go someplace else. But thinking too long about it, staying in the same place, we would probably have just disappeared or gone mad. But how do we not disappear? How do we fight the panic of staying in the moment? Being there?"

How far from the starting point can one travel without losing one’s origin? Everyone who has travelled and worked abroad or lived in another country probably has reflected over the question some time or another. One negotiates with one’s new surroundings. Giving and taking. Collaboration between independent parties expands in a similar manner. In particular in an international collaboration project in which the collaborators are artists with uniquely different stories and artistic perspectives.

The International Show: A Panikk Transatlantique consisted of Iver Findlay, Alexander Gerner, Young Jean Lee, Marie Nerland and in New York the musician Joe Truman joined in. Alexander Gerner and Marie Nerland performed in Bergen.

The negotiation attitude is reflected in the process, which is so central in the development of the project. The company has documented its journey through sound and video recordings using simple equipment many now own: digital cameras and sound recording equipment. Texts written by the company, almost as a diary, e-mails and conversations have been cut and pasted anew. These texts are mixed with a text by the German poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, which is part of the inspiration of the performance. As Brinkmann the performers are interested in the moment, but also in how the moment is re-experienced after it happened, in absence of the original.

Alexander Gerner and Marie Nerland have collaborated in several projects the past five years. In Bergen they have formerly performed Fiel amigo – a friend that can be trusted in Galleri 3,14, What keeps you awake in BIT Teatergarasjen, Endings for Bergen in the NIFCA  studio in USF Verftet and Let`s do Endings again in Lydgalleriet.

Source:

BIT Teatergarasjen, Meteor 2007. Performance program The International show: A Panikk Transatlatique. 22.11.2010: http://www.bit-teatergarasjen.no/ -arkiv