between bodies and place
between bodies and place was a collaborative project between SITE + PAErsche.
Across 7 days, 12 performance artists stayed together and performed at 3 locations in
Essen, Germany.
Artists:
An Malv
Akal Kiret
Helen Davison
Jade Blackstock
kane stonestreet
Klaut
Marita Bullmann
Monstera Deliciosa
Sandra Johnston
selina bonelli
Stephan US
Thomas
Locations:
Viewing platform Autobahndreieck BO-West , Wattenscheider Straße 140, 44793 Bochum
Rheinorange , am Bört, 47059 Duisburg
Schurenbachhalde , 45329 Essen
June 2022
between these bodies
Histories
lie oceans of knowledge, formed
from previous actions
knowledge of a practice, many attempts,
knowledge of a history
knowledge of a form
between these places
Fresh
perspective
new formations
We gather and our bodies are nourished by the hands of the others.
pull towards discussion
out of an action of agreement
When was the last time you looked out over the motorway
the autobahn
the highway
Like teenages
We are coming to age
to spend this time together
To come to age or to leave this place
— But I have only just got here
What if we ascended together?
A sense of arrival
step by step
your feet make their way
in step
I leave things behind, bend myself in double. Twinned by you. Both reaching for
something. Down there, by our feet. A edge of the railing. Welding. Metal meets metal covered and coloured.
There’s something else.
What have you found? What did Claud just find?
I can’t quite see.
- - -
Circling around the square.
backwards passing pointing
I get myself ensnared in the tangle of a trans sibling.
soft fabric with the jutt of sprig, or a twig, or a stick, or an entire branch, or an entire
tree, or an entire forest.
A shoe and a square and I’m searching.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Where does it meet?
Tides and flowing, freeling mingling
In the last twenty four hours, since I last walked this path, so many branches have snapped,
or bent or broken.
Delicate debris is collected on our way.
A larger space of play today. The traffic looks a little different: boats and bikes pass by.
A family, a pride flag, a helicopter, a fisherman.
Have you seen anything out of the ordinary today?
I find myself in a small world with you.
30cm x 30cm maximum
Our faces are together, only millimetres off the ground, as our fingers search the soil.
We dig out rocks from the sandy dirt.
Dark lines form under our fingernails.
One by one we toss the stones to the side.
pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat
I form back the earth
As you unearth more
A game of chase,
Cat and mouse,
Mound and pound
My hands move across the surface, finding a new formation of hair and skin and clothes.
I pat your head — a helicopter
— over head
take cover
take comfort
I offer a hand, limited protection
We cling on a piece of grass between our teeth, our lips
spit clings to it
You come crawling in, open mouthed.
A baby bird needs feeding.
Take it for your journey onward.
I just let my trans sibling fall, I couldn’t hold the chain taught for long enough
The stakes weren’t high but my failure is felt deeply
You’ve left me now, and something has caught my eye.
How long have you been there for? A scourge on this post...
Who carved you? What do you mean to them?
What is this feeling you’ve brought forth in me?
A burst of spit erupts from my mouth
and again, and again, and again, and again
I can’t get enough out.
I can’t release enough.
I can’t be exhausted before you’re destroyed.
Because you would have destroyed me.
I would be who you came for.
This vessel I inhabit would betray me
be the death of me
You put yourself between me and the thing I’ve been aiming at.
A white flag
My mouth so dry I have nothing left to give
I can’t
An impulse akin to cleansing.
I like the charcoal from my hand,
the charcoal you gifted me earlier
I push back, dirty your shirt with it, my hand to your chest
We balance each other
out
Words by kane stonestreet
Photos by Alex Gulino