We inherit images of ourselves before we can refuse them. Fairy tales gave us the golden hair, the proper hunger, the body that belongs. Food rituals told us what a people eats, and therefore what a people is. These are not innocent stories, they are the architecture of normative identity, written into bones and flesh. Biologist Lynn Margulis spent her life arguing something different: that what we call a self is in fact a \"baroque edifice\". She speaks of cells that ate each other and became something neither was before. Following this tells us that we are, on a cellular level, mutants. The self is not an origin. It is an ongoing digestion.
symbiogenesis lives in those gaps. Images of fairy tales, (edible) hair and bodies. They move through the audience searching for something in each other: who are we in relation, rather than by definition?
Alina Arshi (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer based in Lausanne. She draws inspiration from the body’s contradictory status: simultaneously concrete and abstract, this tool opens up other dimensions for communication and understanding. As a dancer Alina works with Teresa Vittucci, Nicole Seiler, Marlène Saldana and Jonathan Drillet, Léa Katharina Meier, Juliette Uzor, Emma Bertuchoz, Mathilde Monnier, and Simon Van Schuylenbergh.
Luc Häfliger aka Gotgha (they/them) is a Zurich-based composer, performer, and sound artist whose practice examines how we can recode spaces and bodies through sonic experiences. Through the lens of noise, Gotgha explores sonic and performative states where the boundaries between control and ecstasy blur, seamlessly weaving together composition and improvisation. As a collaborator, they work with Joseph Baan and margaretha jüngling. Their work has been shown among others at Les Urbaines, Drifts Festival Helsinki, Kunsthalle Zürich, Kunsthalle Baselland, Perform Now! Chengdu, Tanzhaus Zürich, Instituto Svizzero in Rome, and ZKM Karlsruhe.
margaretha jüngling (no pronouns / she,he) is a Zurich-based artist and chef whose practice uses food as a poetic tool to reflect on current ecological, economic, and social crises. By questioning Western norms and practices, everyday cooking becomes a way to rethink food systems and their impact on the (social) environment. In recent years, margaretha's work has been shown at Fondazione Giuliani (Rome), Biblioteca Hertziana (Rome), Kunst Halle Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Chur, Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Belluard Bollwerk Festival, Gessnerallee Zurich, Triennale Klöntal (Diesbach), and Ménagerie de Verre (Paris).
Elia Brülhart (he/him) is particularly interested in the specific typologies and references that scent can produce as a medium. He moves between the role of a curator and writer – classifying, reflecting on, and communicating scents – and his own artistic practice, in which he develops fragrances himself. In doing so, he primarily uses synthetic and highly common raw materials typically found in the flavour and fragrance industry.
Production: margaretha jüngling
Performers: margaretha jüngling, Alina Arshi & Luc Häfliger
Sound: Luc Häfliger
Food: margaretha jüngling
Scent: Elia Brühlhart