“If coexistence is an allegory, then togetherness ought to be it’s smell”
SMELLS OF COEXISTENCE emerges from an engagement with smell and performance that began in 2018 (most recently with SMELLS OF RACISM), as well as multiple combinations of music and dance collaborations between Arko, Kanishka and Sandra, some of them going as far back as 20 years. Looking at SMELLS OF COEXISTENCE from the point of view of migration and refugee-hood as central catalysts, Smells of Loss, Smells of Rebuilding, Smells of Resistance and Smells of Coexistence are shared olfactorily, addressed visually, in personal dialogue, through movement and music in an immersive installation and a culminating music/dance concert.
26.10.2021 – 17-22h /1.11.2021/5.11.2021
The Immersive installation
What do you do with a smell that you are not familiar with and that you perhaps do not like (immediately)? What happens to displaced (food) smells? Can smells coexist? What can coexistence smell like? Smells remind us of what was left behind; smells are integral to (re)building feelings of home; but smells (marked in terms of culture and class) are also central to politics of exclusion, conflicts, and as symbols of resistance. The installation invites the audience to engage with visuals and smells in relation to Loss, Rebuilding, Resistance and Coexistence; to listen and move to the smells in guided improvisations or talk to us about smells, migrations, racisms and coexistence.
https://www.spielart.org/programm/nose/smells-of-coexistence
Listening and Moving to smells: Movement workshop with live music by Arko Mukhaerjee and Kanishka Sarkar
How do jasmin, juniper or fermented soybeans move? What physical experience and expression goes along with the experience of smells? How do we move along with a sensual experience which only occurs through hearing and smelling and is experienced in a highly individual manner at the same time? Following the process of fragrance oil production, movements are ‘distilled’ in a guided improvisation in this workshop. The improvisatory approach not only exemplifies the volatility of smells, but also covers the aspect of the human body’s ongoing search for a still unknown vocabulary.
https://www.spielart.org/programm/nose/smells-of-coexistence-listening-and-moving-to-smells
6.11.2021 – 20h Concert
A typical concert/sound by Arko and Kanishka (together: Ashram) is a unique mix of live Electronica, loops, grooves, samples mixed with songs and tunes of Nomads, Mystics to Folklore. Ashram will be joined by Sandra with her equally nomadic dance language, which, grounded in classical Indian dance, expands inspired by multiple dance forms including contemporary and Polynesian dance. The concert will present a collection of songs from across continents, with a focus on songs of mystic Sufi Saints, that use the allegory of scents to convey words of a philosophy that brings people together and to tell stories of life, migrations, loss, resistance and coexistence.
https://www.spielart.org/en/program/nose/smells-of-coexistence-concert