Last night saw the premiere of «We need to talk» in Bern at the Tanz In. Bern festival. It felt good to finally have an audience in the space with me and I think it was a pretty good run of the work so far. I am thoroughly looking forward to performing it more, seeing how it shifts and grows.

One can still catch it here in Bern tonight or tomorrow night. That is the 21.10 and 22.10 at 19.30 and 21.30 respectively. Alternatively, one can see it in Zurich the week after next. See dates here.

Working in Berlin at the beautiful Eden studios in Pankow on the solo performance, «We need to talk». Trying to marry the idea of the last 33 years of the Voyager spacecraft's journey and more importantly, the Golden Record's trajectory through space and time with my own existence and scant travels. I'm using the eceletic compilation of music included on the record/timecapsule as a kind of enforced dramaturgy for the work - dancing my way through the cornerstones of classical and modern music from the world over and looking for affinities. We were both, the record and me, launched in 1977 and if this record is supposed to represent humankind until that point then I should feel some connection with it, right? Or at least become familiar with my immediate past as it travels into the future.

The research is really fun but very wide. I am often getting lost by the ennormity of the subject and the sense of space - quite literally. Liked the picture of dust in the milky way on the right. Could be outer space but then it could just be a cloud of theatre dust or a painted backdrop.

I am really thrilled to finally present «To Serve Zürich» in the context of Zürcher Festspiele. It's been a long wait and this will be the last scheduled presentation of «To Serve» in it's entirety. «Deserve», however,  will be performed in Saint-Etinne, France this December in combination with screenings of «Vous etes servis».
(see tour dates for details)

You can see «Deserve» on 23, 24, 25 June in Theaterhaus Gessnerallee at 21.00. It is also possible to see Jorge's documentary film, «Vous etes servis» at 19.30 every evening beforehand in the same space. I think it's a good proposal to make a intimate temporal relation between the two works and I am looking forward to hear how the audience experience them in close proximity.

Here is a list of guests for the symposium on Saturday, 25. June at Villa Tobler between 15:00 – 17:00. Hope to see you there!

Ruth Dällenbach (Moderation) 
Director of Solidar Suisse (formerly Schweizerisches Arbeiterhilfswerk SAH) 
www.solidar.ch
 
Dr. Maria Grazia Giammarinaro 
Special Representative & Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings  
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) 
www.osce.org 
 
Karin Pape 
WIEGO / participant ILO-conference 
www.wiego.org 
 
Dore Heim 
Director of Gender Equality of the city of Zurich 
www.stadt-zuerich.ch
 
Sarah Schilliger 
Scientific assistant at the institute for sociology Basel 
http://soziologie.unibas.ch

«House without a maid» will be located in Villa Tobler der Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft Winkelwiese 4, 8001 Zurich on Saturday the 25 and Sunday the 26 between 13.00 and 18.00
Opposite, you can see a couple of images of the Jugendstil interior of the Villa Tobler. It's pretty austere, even a bit gloomy which will make for an interesting setting for the works and a strong atmoshere for the spectator.

Sadly, Vlatka Horvat won't be performing «Unhinged» but the lovely Elpida Elfanidou will be replacing her.

There is a specialist talk happening between 15.00 and 17.00 on the Saturday at the Villa. We are really lucky to have Maria Grazia traveling to Zürich to share her ideas and details of her work fighting against Human trafficking. Dr. Maria Grazia Giammarinaro Special Representative & Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings  Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
www.osce.org

Other guests will take a closer look at the current local situation, the disturbing patterns of abuse and also the legal issues of domestic workers here in Switzerland.