The year 2020-21 is witness to mankind struggling to survive not only the fatal pandemic but also man’s inevitable greed and hunger for power. The oppressive forces take control of one’s self and thereby of the populous across the globe. The radical extremist hand governs our lives to the brink of hopelessness. Freedom and creativity are at stake.

 

Today, we ask ourselves who we really are. Which are those fond memories where we find ourselves connected? What can we do for each other? What can we really share in this world of isolation? And, how can we fill these spaces- inside and outside of us?

 

Lying down in empty rooms, gaping at blank walls~ our minds work overtime. Someone screams, the bell rings, a TV announcement is made~ the endless synaptic connections are made & we shudder. We are afraid of the worst. And there is no escape. We are thrown into an aimless journey through unknown lanes or fall in a spiral, endlessly. Everyone around us is transforming into fierce animals. Rhinoceros perhaps? It’s as if Free-Will does not exist and there are no choices to make anymore. We all sing the same song but we have no mouths. The song swells and envelopes us all within…all~ be it the outcastes or the poets, the freedom-fighters or the minority.

 

Our show invites you to a cyber space where a digital museum opens up its many rooms over a fixed period of showtime. It offers various non-linear narratives as you enter, exit, enter again to experience diverse film-theatre-visual art forms. The entire interface is interactive as it invites the audience to scroll, click, enter, write, speak, record image, take polls, make choices, fill up forms and thereby implicating them and constantly demanding participation in the progression of the show. It takes the form of an investigation in the intersections between performance and video.

 

With an urgent need to push the boundaries of performance in digital arena, we set out to explore what performance can offer video and vice-versa on network technology. Also, using these new technologies, how to communicate and participate in social and political discourses, meanings, and values.

 

Diverse national & international artistic inputs (30 performers, 6 visual artists, 2 illustrators and graphic designers, 4 film makers, 4 editors, 2 sound scape artists, a team of coders and web designers along with invaluable support of production managers, writers, singers and several non-artists) bring alive this first of its kind digital performance experience in India.

 

The piece is designed and directed by Atul Kumar.