Schwalbe is a theatre collective, comprised of seven performers and creators. Their work is physical by nature. Every performance is born out of the body. Physicality is pushed to the limits and displays itself to be fickle and unpredictable in extreme circumstances. The live aspect, and the unexpected, is captured in a theatrical setting. They search for reality, on the border of theatre and performance.

Since 2013 I share a fine way of working together with Schwalbe. My Video Installation “Formation” is an adaptation of their theatre performance “Schwalbe zoekt massa”. Since then I have recorded and made films and trailers of “Schwalbe zoekt massa”, ” Spaar ze till we die” their recent 6 hr performance “Schwalbe speelt een tijd” and am currently working on “Werk 8”.

Schwalbe performs a time
Performance registration and 12min. video (out of a 6-hr performance) for programmers.
by Fanny Hagmeier, Ramaz Melashvilli & Maaki Nurmeots

Time is physical. Our experience of time depends on anchor points: night and day, ever-recurring hunger, thirst, sleep, the sub-optimum system of the striking of the clock, and the growth and decline of the body. In TIME (working title), the Schwalbe theatre collective asks the audience to ‘temporarily let go of time’. To exchange clock time for the time of experience. To take a seat, get into it, go away (to buy a Snickers), change perspective, resist, build a nest, spend the night, wake up and see something that’s totally different, or still the same.
Video

 

Save them till we die
We have decided to continue with our first performance Spaar Ze (Save them), until there are no survivors.
Once every five years, we will come together and perform in front of both the camera, and a select audience. When the last one of us dies, the film material will be handed over to a, probably as yet unborn, artist with the mandate to make this life’s work into a piece of art/installation, with the name Spaar Ze – till we die.
To the same beat, with our ever-aging bodies. We want to make the transience that you see within this performance visible across the years. The meaning of the performance will change. Because the world around us changes, because we get older, maybe no longer able to jump, and because we will ultimately have to carry on without each other’s presence.

For full videos and more information, please contact me.