A Monteverdi Project

In a variety of aesthetic and scientific formats, the Israeli director and choreographer Saar Magal addresses love, eroticism and human relationships, exploring their potential developments in a future shaped by the influence of new technologies, post-humanism and the Anthropocene era. In the Anthropocene, human history converges with geological and biological processes as humanity becomes a significant factor influencing the earth and its own physical alteration. How can this convergence be assimilated by bodily subjects? How can it be conveyed artistically so that it gets under our individual and collective skin? How can the prospect of our own transformation be translated into the present, into the texture of lived experience?
By observing and grappling with images of pairs of lovers from history, in this dance and theatre performance Magal raises the question of how old myths and narratives shape our mental picture of the future. In this context, the late works of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) become a major source of inspiration – as an expression of archetypal perspectives on love, desire and human nature, which have continued to influence our aesthetic perception to this day.