Studied Philosophy and Comparative Religion Hatz Lambo & Varia Sjöström

Transform our home into a stage for new immersive livestream work of performance and fictional story. Address violence and collective resilience, includes dialogue with other residents at all times.

| Yksivuotinen

"The Chainsaw Man or How do I get to you again?" is an immersive musical performance and fictional story made for an innovative online livestream format. The project will tell the story of our usual avatars, Smillie and Jaw, two Characters coming from the 4th Millennium, where violence is extinct. As they chop wood with chainsaws they enter into an argument, in which they are confronted with violence inherited from the ancestors. In order to break from the cycle of violence repeating, they alternatively change into each other. The project asks: Why is the history of violence repeating? Are traumatic experiences past generations going to be transferred into the future? What are the processes that people use to heal from their trauma and break form the repeating cycle? Those questions around violence were triggered by a fight in Gotland as we were both chopping wood with chainsaws. We felt possessed by our own fathers and mothers speaking through us as we were arguing together. To realize how much violence and stereotypical representation of masculinity/femininity we have inherited has lead us to disturbing disorientating questions about power, blaming shaming and mistakes. The Chainsaw Man will exist in multiple forms: first as an endurance performance art in which performer duo Varia & Lambo will alternatively play one of the two avatars alternatively. Then as live-action immersive theater almost entirely be set within an ever-shifting stage set up at home, a sculptural massive and strange environment of broken crap. And finally it will exist as livestreamed film on social media platforms. The project will include the public and other residents interaction at all stages in form of weekly notes via small videos, pictures, or notes on a common google drive or a board where we will leave questions for everyone to read and answer. This online space could become a Writers' Room in which others could propose ideas for the story, as we defined the story in progress.