Vulneri

To live in society, in the world, is to share space with other beings. Freedom is, in that sense, not an endless horizon of personal whim but rather a sphere, limited with and by the other who likewise inhabits that very limited space. We are observing population growth, which calls for questions such as: Where exactly does the freedom (space) of one person meet the freedom (space) of another? How wide is the space that one can inhabit, occupy, in which one can deliberate, think, and exist? The human tendency to spread across the environment – to occupy, colonise and push the limits of one’s freedom – is often disguised as a survival instinct. Behind this drive is often the illusion that freedom exists only where we have absolute control. Vulneri is thus not merely an observation of physical oversaturation but also a symptom of an ideological paradigm, i.e. the assumption that the surplus of others necessarily means lack of freedom.

Anamaria Klajnšček addresses these topics on a physical and material level – by placing three dancers within a single square meter, where they cohabitate, coexist, and share the space while, precisely within these limits, seeking freedom. Klajnšček brings into the space a series of movement, dance, and somatic techniques that she has been exploring for the past seven years. We are looking at bodies in constant movement, engaged in active tactile listening and role-switching. The performance reveals the fragile architecture of human codependence.

The dancers’ cohabitation in an extremely small space strips the concept of freedom of its abstraction. The limits between the freedom of one person and that of others are made perfectly clear. While the terror and imperialistic expropriation of space and freedom are, as history (and, alas, the current situation) shows, always a (terrible) option, the dancers in Vulneri hint at a viable alternative: sensibility and solidarity. But these call for a full understanding of the concept of cohabitation. They demand subtlety of movement (i.e., of thinking), plasticity of bodies (i.e., of thinking), and collaboration among bodies (i.e., among people). For if two out of three people on a single square meter of surface fail, if the power relations destroy them, the third person simply becomes alone. Does being the only one still include the concept of freedom?