PSi AssemBle!

22 June 2024 | 1 PM — 5 PM | Woburn Square Gardens, London

Part of Performance Studies International (PSi) #29 Assemble!

Festivalt

25-27 June 2024 | 12 — 3 PM | ul. Józefińska 16, Kraków

Part of FestivALT | Festival of Jewish Art and Activism

Hospitality is a salient feature of most—if not all—traditional societies. What happens to practices of hospitality when an individual or community is on the move—with no stable or permanent home? IN || TENT engages with this question by exploring ancient practices of hospitality in the present. 

IN || TENT is a one-to-one performance built around the action of a ritual ablution of the feet. One of the core (in)tents of the performance is to create a space of unconditional reception in which the artist performs restorative acts of care. The space of the tent is one of (u)Topia—or no-place. The emphasis on the act of care in transient and ephemeral spaces is a decolonial gesture that points to the myriad ways in which we can tread lightly (on land) and reminds us of our true relation to earth: we are mere passersby. 

The radical inclusiveness of the tent—conceived as a space apart—carries the potential to temporarily suspend the identity categories that would render us as “the other” in each other’s eyes. Alternatively, it may be a space in which we dwell intentionally in the discomfort or unease that radical difference may present.

The performance constitutes an embodied exploration of issues and questions related to itineracy, precarity, (un)settling, and (de)colonialization. It further offers a critical and generative engagement with modern notions of statehood, statelessness, nomadism, and the ever elusive idea and sensation of home.