Burnt [the eter­nal long now]

Residenties

  • 26.09 > 01.10.2022

Burnt [the eter­nal long now]’ — LEE\VAKULYA is a pie­ce for sta­ge with three dan­cers and a sound artist. 

The show takes a clo­se look at the dyna­mic rela­ti­ons­hip bet­ween together­ness and exhaus­ti­on through the burn-out syndrome. 

According to Dutch soci­o­lo­gist, Fred L. Polak in his book The ima­ge of the futu­re (1961), Every man leads a dou­ble life.” For Polak, this dua­lism was the indis­pen­sa­ble prer­equi­si­te for the move­ment of events in time and for the dyna­mic of his­to­ri­cal chan­ge. However, today a dou­ble life” see­ms an under­sta­te­ment. With the quick devel­op­ment of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies in the last deca­des, how many lives has this led us to lead – simul­ta­neous­ly? How do we (ac)count (for) the myriad of sel­ves we mana­ge across plat­forms, spa­ces, pro­fi­les, and interfaces? 

For us, the­se lives” have mul­ti­plied over time: the Facebook Self dif­fers from the LinkedIn Self as does the Professional Self of the offi­ce calen­dar, in con­trast to the Imaged Self on Instagram or the Quantified Self on one’s FitBit. Within this inten­se frac­tu­ring (and inhe­rent labor), the idea of a dou­ble life” see­ms roman­ti­cally simple. 

It is no won­der that under the influ­en­ce of the­se pulls, ten­si­ons, and clas­hes we beco­me una­ble – and disa­b­led to cope, let alo­ne act. Imagination requi­res ener­gy and the men­tal capa­ci­ty (spa­ce and time) to dream. The mass phe­no­me­non of burn-out direct­ly reflects the trou­bles of our cul­tu­ral imagination.