I Want To Shake Your Hands / 2012 / Performance / Presented in the exhibition Type & Characters at Lettergieterij, Amsterdam (NL)
Actors: Sophia Holst, Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson, Chris, Liza, and Noam.
Curated by Paul Gangloff
A story telling tour is made through the former type factory in 3 movements using residents from the building as performers. The work exists as a constellation of parts (stories, poems, gestures, and objects) all reflecting on the ritual of handshaking.
The 1st movement begins in the Marble Hall, where I tell a story of how I want to meet a man called "The Marble Man". The 2nd movement is to the inner courtyard where two people emerge from the audience to have an impromptu conversation about Cliche. Suddenly two girls emerge and sit on a seesaw. They go back and forth with philosophical questions and proclamations regarding equality and inequality. They remain linked through a double spatula object. In-between their voices, a man out of a window blasts a saxophone composition based on the shofar call and response in the Jewish new year ceremony. The final movement is to the roof, first in a small glass room where a poem about meetings is told, and last onto the very top for a collective handshake agreement, where a photo is taken.
Special thanks to: the audience, the actors, Re'em Aharoni, Marianne Theunissen, Gaston, Ruud, Wandana, and M4Gastatelier.
