Art Happens

Avant-premiere
23 – 25 November 2023
Festival d’Automne à Paris
Centre Pompidou
Premiere
7 February 2024
Schauspielhaus Zürich

Back when the author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the novel The Scarlet Letter, there was no designation for women who had a free approach to their bodies and sexuality, and even less support. In their honour, choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell takes an imaginative look back: What could have happened in those colonial times, when European settlers occupied foreign territory and subjected their women to arbitrary rules if a woman with an illegitimate child had actually been condemned to wear the scarlet “A”? From where would gloating and solidarity have been expected? Together the performers and audience celebrate the possibility of changing the future by memorializing historical regret.
The choreographer, accompanied by visual artist Sarah Sze, has turned Tambourines into a “flexible” laboratory piece, with guests joining the stage for the duration of a performance. “Never stand still”, Trajal Harrell sums up.