Setting sail into the unknown

Perhaps ‘uncertainty’ is the word of the moment. A world order – one we’ve long known to be flawed – is continuing to falter. Wars, political shifts, the question of which alliances will still hold tomorrow. At the same time, we have just come through a summer in which Europe was once again marked by heatwaves, droughts and fires. The extremes are becoming more extreme, certainties more fragile.

And us? We have become rather good at responding to uncertainty with a desire for even more certainty. Predictions, plans, positions, opinions. Wanting to know where we stand as quickly as possible. Yet right now, a different approach would be interesting: becoming curious about what we do not yet know. Not resolving every uncertainty straight away. Staying with it for a moment longer. See what happens when the ground shifts beneath us and we carry on regardless.

This is precisely the right way to kick off the third season of Kathrin Veser, Miriam Walther and their team at the Gessnerallee. The first few weeks feel like three experiments in the face of the unknown: Tiran Willemse ventures into his first group choreography. Dana Michel steps into a swimming pool, even though swimming is anything but second nature to her. And Fatima Moumouni constructs a conversational format centred on those moments we normally edit out of public discussions: hesitations, searching for words, ‘um’, doubts, not knowing what to say next.

So is it not at all about overcoming uncertainty? Do we simply have to learn to live with it? And then there’s Dolly Parton, too. The great American singer, songwriter and entertainer recently passed away at the age of 80. A quote that has been attributed to her for many years – even though its origins go back much further – fits this September surprisingly well:

‘We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.’

So: set a new course.

Tiran Willemse opens the season with a rather big leap into the unknown: ‘SYNTHETIC / Artefact’ is his first group choreography. Together with Davide-Christelle Sanvee, Élie Autin, Ophelia Young and Elizabeth Mulenga, he explores the figure of the puppet – in European ballet and theatre as well as in African and Asian dance forms. The world of the piece is set both ‘a long time ago’ and ‘in the distant future’: magnificent and ravaged, populated by bodies that seem originally intended to be looked at, until they suddenly begin to move.

What happens when something departs from the position assigned to it? When an object becomes an active body, the familiar becomes something alien, and a familiar form becomes a matter of speculation? Willemse has been working for years with presence, absence, identity and
memory. Now he is multiplying the bodies – and with them, the risk. A fine start to a season on uncertain ground.

from 10 September | Gessnerallee

And then: pack your swimming trunks – at least in your mind. Dana Michel moves her performance to the Altstetten indoor swimming pool. Although she has tried time and again, Michel is still unable to swim in a relaxed manner. Many members of her family do not swim either, even though the family hails from an island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. From this, she develops a research project – as personal as it is political – exploring water, fear, self-confidence and the question of who actually has safe access to swimming.

I particularly like this as a metaphor for insecurity: you cannot hold on to water. You have to surrender to it, at least to some extent. To be able to swim, you have to do precisely what fear makes so difficult – trust your own body and an element that can both carry you and swallow you whole. Michel doesn’t turn this into a didactic lesson, but rather a humorous, headstrong adventure.

19 & 20 September | Altstetten Indoor Swimming Pool

And ultimately, uncertainty itself becomes a method. With ‘Die Neue Unsicherheit’ (The New Uncertainty), Fatima Moumouni has invented a discussion format that seeks out precisely what presenters normally go to great lengths to avoid: the pause. The ‘um’. That moment when someone realises that their own position might not quite hold water after all.

On 25 September, Swassthi Sivasanmukanatha Sarma will be our guest. She was born in Zurich and grew up as the child of Tamil refugees. She is a freelance writer, sociologist, critical thinker and intersectional activist; she writes, performs, teaches and curates discussion formats.

Moumouni asks whether a ‘safe space for uncertainty’ can emerge on stage. Both the guest and the presenter are allowed to feel at a loss in equal measure. No lightning-fast one-liners, no confident moderation, but rather public thinking as it unfolds. The ‘um’ is not trained out here, but explicitly sought.

And that is precisely the crux of the matter: uncertainty is not the same for everyone. For some, it is an experiment they voluntarily embark upon. For others, it has long been part of everyday life. So what happens if it isn’t hidden, glossed over or dispelled as quickly as possible? If we allow the hesitation, the searching, the contradiction, the not knowing what to say next? Perhaps, where control is relinquished for a moment, something rare actually emerges: closeness.

25 September | Gessnerallee

PS: After ‘Neue Unsicherheit’, there’ll be karaoke. So grab a microphone, don’t worry if you can’t hit the right note, and just get on with it. How about Dolly Parton’s ‘Better Get to Livin’ from 2007? A song about her rather unshakeable philosophy on life. Or, as Dolly sings: ‘Better start tryin’, better start smiling.’