What if everything we know is wrong?

Over this past week it has become increasingly clear that the work we are trying to propose here is simply a visible public attempt to construct one place, from collected fragments and details, within another place, where it would not otherwise be present – and the use of that attempt to allow the possible meeting place that then becomes at least apparent in that act. There are other things that we enjoy doing at the same time, and other things that we would like to be able to do there – but in reality, none of them are helpful… (Mike Brookes, Providence, USA, September, 2011).

At the heart of What if everything we know is wrong? there is a direct act of representation. Overt representation, devoid of metaphor, and without formal or technical assumptions. And there is an open social space, which we try to reveal through our attempts to construct a tangible representation of somewhere else – using only drawing, fragments of captured sound, and a handful of blurred snapshots for reference.

From its inception this work was conceived to be as direct and self-contained as possible. It was always our intention to simply step into the middle of a crowd, carrying everything we needed, and begin. The transience and immediacy of the work are key to its proposition. It needs no technical support or infrastructure to be installed at site, and tries to leave as little lasting physical impact on the location as possible. The work requires simply an audience and an otherwise empty space.

Realised amongst unseated spectators – with thirty pocket dictaphones, a selection of polaroids and a piece of chalk – the event is defined and structured by our located attempt to reconstruct one place, from collected fragments and details, within another place, where it wouldn’t otherwise be present.

The work contains the unedited audio of an archive recording – chosen for their relevance to each specific context, and in the language of that context.

A performance series co-created with Mike Brookes

With the support of Iberescena, Wales Arts Interational, Brown University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Pact Zollverein and Azala Espacio de Creación