Salle des pas perdus
„I’ve been long enough here to know the system and to fish myself through. It was almost easier to be at that time without papers, because they ask you so many questions, they need so much papers, when you are in fact‚ sans papiers. If I didn’t cry, I saw somebody else cry. And if I didn’t cry and if somebody else didn’t cry, I saw someone else totaly losing it. They are aliens, they are actually aliens.”
Fragment from interview with Lisa Gunstone, dancer
The Salle des pas perdus project aims at inquiring into ‘moving in the city’ from the perspective of people who cannot afford to move spontaneously: the illegal immigrants. The result is a performance, shown in the public space on the Nieuwstraat in Brussels, a place where many people from different cultures and with different ‘customs’ come together – so, an exceptional challenge to explore physical boundaries. The accidental passers-by are an important aspect of this performance.
Just like walking is the most basic of all movements, having your papers is the most basic condition needed to participate in society. If you don’t have your papers, your path will be full of obstacles. It determines the figure that your footsteps draw, the route that you take…
Our work is based on the experiences that illegal immigrant dancers have with the concept of ‘movement’, both from a professional and a personal perspective.
We investigate how they move in the city, and how they experience their movements: aimlessly, or with a determined target. Will they stand still or run away? Do they follow any regular patterns? Can those patterns be mapped out? What causes them? What kinds of inhibitions do those people experience? What kind of risks do they take? Are there certain places that they avoid? How would they like to move? Do they progress? Or are they simply spinning around in a vicious circle?
“Since one easily outstays one’s welcome – whether as a tourist, a guest worker, or after the graduation in the case of the student – a considerable portion of the “international” dance scene is, consequently, living and working in Belgium illegally.” Nasr Hafez in Janus 21_II_47
Credits
A project by: Irma Firma vzw in collaboration with BNA-BBOT
With: Beniamin Boar, Einat Tuchman, Lisa Gunstone, Barbara Pereira, Guislaine Labouet, Ann Van de Vyvere, Tarek Halaby and Varinia Canto Vila