DASH CHE
(RU/US/FI)
Bear, my love
45′
Wednesday 29.11 | 16:30
Thursday 30.11 | 16:30
In the courtyard of Agios Nicolaos church,
38 Asklipiou St.
Admission free
With their queer suitcase full of quite a few native lands and countries of residence, they travelled slowly by bus all through South-Eastern Europe in a process of creating a performance about history, ignition, “patrides” and love – however scary all this might be! And they perform it in the courtyard of a church.
The journey and the performance are part of the project “What Time Is It?” of the Time for Live Art network, a collaboration of four festivals co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. The four selected artists travel by ground-based means “taking their time” so that the journey itself becomes a residency. The experience of the journey becomes the material for the work to be presented at the hosting festival. Dash Che travel from Helsinki to Athens, crossing Europe from North to South to present Bear, my love at MIR. Three more works are taking place as part of “What Time Is It?” connecting Athens with Brussels, Turku and Ljubljana.
“There is love here. Sultry cavity filled with thick love. The coat of love envelops my body. Attaches to my skin and enters it like ingrown hair. The incisions of attachment swell, pumping me with dizzying oxytocin. I feel in love. I leave my own body and join the collective one. We love together. As people. As a nation. Our love is headless and scary. I feel scared of it too ‒ it’s all one big pulsing heart. In Bear, my love the love attachment to a country is explored. A genderqueer body enters a collective body of patriotism to touch its insides. We chose a Greek Orthodox church as a performance site as we see the church both as ‘a project of patriotism’ and ‘a project of love’.”
Dash Che
Dash Che (they/them) is a genderqueer Russian American dancer, performing, teaching and conceptual artist currently based in Finland. Dash has been working with the notion of a patriotic corporeality for the last year. They explore the questions of foreignness, desire to belong, ways of inclusion and exclusion through choreographing bodies and objects, working with ready-mades and installations, and facilitating workshops. Their work lingers at the border of eerie, subtle, humorous, aggressive, risky, and abstract. They have a strong background in DIY organizing and LGBTQ activism.
Concept, choreography, performance: Dash Che
Dramaturgy: Anna Kozonina
Sound maker: Oula Rytkönen
Bear suit maker: Jere Vainio
Performance assistant: Evdokia Noula
Production: MIRfestival, Athens
Co-production: Time For Live Art European network, co-funded by the EU (Creative Europe):New Performance Turku Biennale (FI), Thor/ Trouble Festival
Premiere: MIRfestival 2023
