When two universes meet, it does not necessarily end well. It’s a bit like viruses. (This is a metaphor, let’s leave virology alone. We’ve heard enough of that in recent days.) It might lead to a discovery, a cure, or even the development of a lethal weapon. Anything can happen when two universes meet. Some elements are lost and others are discovered. There is sacrifice but also rediscovery and, above all else, there is the transformation that comes after contamination.
The word ‘contamination’ has sinister connotations today, but, in a certain sense, it is thanks to contamination that we all exist; we and the world around us. It is a cliche to say that the most fertile ground for contamination is art, but it is equally surprising that many of those borders which are “broken down” within a theatre or a museum continue to be part of our reality outside of those spaces.
If this contamination is so widespread, so ingrained and even ‘canonised’ on stage, yet struggles to take root in our societies, why persist? Is this simply a mechanism for washing our consciences or something that inspires change, evolution? Perhaps, following Gillo Dorfles’s lead, the right answer is neither a categorical yes or no, but a change of perspective. Indeed, the art critic reflected that “a minimum of contamination between word and image, between symmetrical and asymmetrical, between minimum and maximum, can only be achieved through the conversion of the verbal sign into a graphic sign that is not its equivalent, but its continuation”. We should therefore think of contamination as something that triggers processes. Words themselves are the result of contamination. Since they are the instrument through which we describe the world, the world itself is in continuous transformation, because of us, because of the contamination of our vocabulary. The word ‘contamination’ therefore means both the act of contamination – an idea that frightens us today, with its epidemiological connotations – and the result of this process: a blurring of contours that causes the depletion of those cells that, left to proliferate, would lead to annihilation.
Contamination is a sign of encounter, openness, hospitality and a willingness to enter into a dialogue, qualities that are clearly evident in the work of the artists who inaugurate this year’s dance section at the Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto: Mourad Merzouki and his twelve dancers, who present Folia at the Teatro Romano on 26 and 27 June, and Jonas & Lander, whose Coin Operated will directly involve the spectators in a performance installation inside the Church of Sant’Agata from 2 to 4 July.
In this mosaic of choreographic languages, Mourad Merzouki combines thrusting hip-hop with spinning dervishes and ballet with virtuosic break-dancing, a miscellany of styles with diverse origins ranging from the tarantella to baroque and electronic music. On a stage filled with musicians and dancers, a universe of scenarios unfolds – evidence not only of coexistence but also intersemination – as the encounter between bodies bears great riches.
«Unexpected encounters between two universes that are apparently counterposed is an aspect of my artistic approach», explains Merzouki. The same idea explains the title of this work. The musical theme of madness (folìa, in the original Portuguese) has roots in an ancient genre that mixed different elements including a dance between shepherds and peasants as well as song, before changing form after being adopted by the court. Associated with moments of feasting and revelry, the folìa says more than a thousand words about the expressive multiplicity of this show’s performers: Compagnie Käfig, the baroque music ensemble Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu directed by Franck-Emmanuel Comte, and the electronic sounds of Grégoire Durrande. According to Merzouki, his own choreographic work is profoundly influenced by the intersections between disciplines and cultures. «I am inspired by the idea of bringing together distant worlds. In order to do that, you have to listen, learn from others, and be happy to leave your comfort zone. It’s confusing at first, but ultimately it is incredibly rewarding!».
Coin Operated ©Bruno Simao
If Merzouki shows how art can break down boundaries and source strength from the encounter, Coin Operated renders the spectator an active participant, making him the source of the performative action.
A couple in art and in life, Jonas Lopes and Patrick Lander exemplify the process of transformation through contamination, with the encounter becoming the main path to the imaginary.
"When we read a phrase like 'break boundaries', we make the mistake of believing that after the rupture we are finally free," the two artists explain. "Yet since we don't believe in freedom, but rather in degrees of freedom, we prefer to think about subverting borders and expanding the horizons of our imagination, never forgetting that as soon as we break one border we immediately find another."
Once again, music and dance intersect to give birth to something else, namely an installation that is also a performance, entrusting the spectator with the power to decide when to realise the surreal world created by the two artists. Multiple contaminations demonstrate how coexistence and acceptance of the ‘other’ can generate new landscapes, unexpected possibilities and very clear examples of the reality in which we live.
While the risk of making separate universes meet does not always pay off, doing so can liberate us from the convictions and mindsets in which we are rooted and which often lead to discrimination and violence. Artistic encounters and contamination not only demonstrate that these processes are possible, but sometimes, as in these two works, also indicate paths to be followed in the future.