AVoid

Created and performed by Marina Cherry with the artistic direction being lead by Brandon Lagaert, AVoid is an interdisciplinary project between acro-dance, contortion, contemporary dance and physical theatre.

The performance creates unexpected connections between structure and chaos, madness and grace, uncertainty and dependence. Through the flux of personal memory and experience comes a natural evolution to withdraw outside of oneself, in order to connect in a public setting the private workings of an individual.

A singular style of movement portraying the body as a container of plenitudes; conscious and unconscious recollections that merge, collide and transform as we are faced with infinite questions and less and less convictions. AVoid is a humble reminder of the senselessness and fragility that it all is held together by.

A complex tension between internal and external.
A warped un-narrative told through a body that is seemingly unconstrained.

This story pursues the constructs of our personal realities.
Not from the story of one individual, but from the mystical multitudes inside.

This project is born from Brandon and Marina’s mutual fascination with solitude, incompleteness, contradictions and Japanese culture. The root of this project has found its similarities to the concept of hikikomori—the withdrawal into seclusion,  a particular condition where people avoid social contact on an extreme level. To shut oneself in. Though this phenomenon has a common place in Japanese society, it too exists on many levels all around the world. The tendency itself is not foreign to the occident, but is rarely addressed socially. This is what we are touching on here, including all of the absurdities around it.

Co-conception & direction: Brandon Lagaert
Co-conception & performance: Marina Cherry

Artistic residency in December 2022 at the Stadscirkus in Sundsvall, Sweden

With the support of Konstnärsnämden - Swedish Arts Council, Kulturrådet - Swedish Culture Council & Stockholm Stad - City of Stockholm

AVoid is selected in frame of Moving Identities funded by The Creative Europe Programme which supports the project through three different residencies at VONK in Hasselt, Belgium and Vaba Lava in Narva, Estonia and Nau Ivanow in Barcelona, Spain.

Premiere: Planned for September 2024