Walking Huis*
Script for a performance
Walking Huis is a performance for three people to simultaneously walk the floor plan of their own (birth) house within a demarcated area in a public space: re-entering a space by re-membering.
The proposition is to do this in large vacant spaces, buildings that have been stripped of their history and have a neutral non-personal appearance.
It can be done in (semi) public spaces, possibly in the presence of others – chance audiences – who become aware of it in passing-by.
Performers: Liesje van den Berk, ienke kastelein, Lisanne Sloot,
Video recording: © ienke kastelein, Amsterdam, 2019
Getting ready
One day we managed to stand up. How did we do that? Where? And when?
How did our first steps follow? Were we “falling and catching ourselves” like Laurie Anderson sings? Anyway we started walking, moving around, most likely in a house.
The performers are standing in the middle of the space, focus on their breathing, feet touching the ground. When they feel ready, they take their first steps at their own pace.
Carefully, hesitantly, accurately.
Walking they re-enter their houses from memory – discovering an internal space, walking the plan of a ‘memory-palace’, each in their own ‘house’, while simultaneously sharing an actual space, layering it with a choreography of time.
*Translation Huis: House