THE ZONE

The Zone was a performance based on the classic film by Andrei Tarkovski, Stalker. Stalker is set in a time after a nuclear or ecological catastrophe, where the main character guides people through the mysterious Zone to reach the room in the center of it. In the room your deepest wishes are realized, it is said.

We started a project to study this metaphor: to meet the unknown territory and to search for the ultimate goal. To feel the Zone as an inner, abandoned, unknown and dangerous realm, from which a hope, a dream, the most secret wish is to be found. To do that, we traveled to a concretely unknown territory to us, a one that would also resonate with the aesthetics of Tarkovski’s film: city of Kaliningrad in Russia and the Curonian Spit on the Lithuanian side of the border.

On the Zone the sacred and the filthy intersect; horror and love intertwine. Tarkovski’s film is a manifesto for atheism, a quasi-scientific study and a deeply religious piece. The travelers touch their personal wounds and face the need for transformation in front of an emptiness too immense for them. With the performance we aimed to open a window to the aesthetics of those precarious zones.

Performances at Puoli-Q Theatre from the 6th to the 22nd of May 2005.
 

GROUP: Markus Krusberg, Tuomas Laitinen, Eino Saari, Terhi Suorlahti and Heidi Syrjäkari

VIDEO & SET DESIGN: Sini Liimatainen and Sakari Luhtala

PRODUCTION: Heidi Aho

VOCAL TRAINING in Lithunia: Brigita Bublyte

PHOTOGRAPHY: Eeva Suorlahti