OPERCULUM – looking for HEIMAT

-> Trailer “Operculum – looking for Heimat”
-> Video “About the Project”

We travel around the world. Our home is where our heart is. Wherever we go we grow roots but they can’t grow deep because soon we leave again. That makes us insecure. We are looking for stability in our life but we don’t want to give up our neonomadic being.

The German word „Heimat“ describes the relationship of a human being towards it’s surrounding. Until the 19th century it was used to describe ones property – house and farm. With the upcoming industrialization and the immense changes in society Heimat changed into a term of desire. It became an utopia that consists of idyllic nature, where everything is in perfect order.

In times of Globalization the desire for stability and balance in life is booming again. The world seems chaotic, unclear and inaccessible. We try not to be left out there alone in reality – the demon we try to run away from. Does home mean escape into idealized memories and the perfect world?

12 performers from Poland and Germany balance on the conflict of our lives and express the ambivalent feeling of Heimat through dance and words. The basis of the performance is built of the fragmentary texts by the polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, in which thorough rooting fights against the urge to leave the known behind.