Schism is an intense experience whether you are an audience member or a performer. It is demanding, both physically and intellectually. Schism is the visual equivalent of reading an article examining Cartesian philosophy that makes you question your very existence and the nature of reality.
The performance takes place in a non-theatre location, the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, and had a theatre-in-the-round configuration which allowed for an intimate setting. The performers often broke the fourth wall and interacted non-verbally with the audience through gazer and gestures. All that broke down the perceived hierarchy between the artists and the audience. That physical closeness made it easier to identify with the performers and feel their movement rather than just observe them as “the others”.
The performance itself had elements of choreographed dancing, music and rhythm, probes and lighting. Dancers, namely Isreal, had an otherworldly command and awareness of their physicality and presence. They oscillated between two main states: the first is perfect neuromuscular coordination and effectively recruiting each and every muscle of their bodies to perform the required movement that makes you wonder if they are humans or humanoid robots programmed too well to imitate us, humans. The other state is the total opposite, dancers are transmuted into ataxic organic beings or maybe freshly produced human clones that are yet to learn how to move. It was extraordinary to watch this transformation with close physical proximity given the performance configuration.
The show brought forward a range of ideas and questions, and none of them is simple. Intersectionality, identity and borders were at the centre of these ideas. But the concept that stayed with me for days after the show is the mind-body problem. “What is a body?”. Are we a mere sum of our parts? Or are we more? And if we are more, what is there other than our material manifestation? Are we the biological representation of the Ship of Theseus? These dichotomies make the title “Schism” very apt.
I delved into these questions on the human condition while I am watching the show, and continued to for a few days after it. This is what I look for in art. I want to leave with something, it does not have to be an answer but it can be a question or a feeling.
The show does not impose a message or values nevertheless. It allows the audience to paint it with their own state of being. An abstract painting of shapes and figures that will briefly form into a meaningful scene before fizzling out to randomness.