Physis

“A state? What is that? The state, I call it, where the slow suicide of all – is called life. For the superfluous ones was the state devised! There, where the state ceases – there only commences the man who is not superfluous.”

(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Physis is the collective organism in which the conflict between body/nature and mind/idea takes place. The body is the eternal crucible of ideological manipulation, instrumentalisation and aestheticisation. Ideas can only live through bodies, a great idea needs many bodies. It can only live as long as bodies can support it, as long as they can bear what they embody. When the biological structure we call health breaks down, pain sets in and the body screams. It becomes a biological bomb, a terrorist of reason. Diseases, beliefs and ideas spread like viruses in social interactions, revealing the power and danger of bodies in contact, establishing bonds that feed and corrode the dominant ideological hierarchy. In defence of an idea, we are ready to kill any body that threatens our projection of the future, of security, of the good, the useful, the beautiful, etc.

We are ready to wipe out everything that does not correspond to the modern ideals of freedom, equality, justice. There is no place for the migration of freedom and justice in a modern democracy. There is no place in democracy for visions of a restless spirit or the melancholic fluttering of a weak heart. Democracy has buried itself in the catacombs of the healthy, the responsible and the normal. It has built for itself a state of the “good and the just”, which needs people who are weak enough to be dependent and diligent enough to remain useful. But nature is not an idea, the body is not an idea, death is not an idea. Nature is the glorious graveyard where life grazes. Nature is the uncivilised, untamed, brutally insensitive, undemocratic gravedigger of all that claims life. Nature has no place for the rule of the “good and just”. There is no democracy for nature.

Physis is dedicated to Friedrich Nietzsche, who suffered a nervous breakdown on 3 January 1889 and a series of strokes after 1898, leaving him partially paralysed. He died of pneumonia on 25 August 1900. The diagnosis of his “insanity” is still a matter of medical debate.

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We started developing Physis in 2019, but during the closure due to the Covid-19 virus epidemic, it was not possible to realise it in the form of a performance. So in February 2021 we adapted the material for video and filmed it at the Old Town Power Station in Ljubljana. Due to the changed production circumstances, Physis was realised in three development phases:

Physis Icons
Video • 10’09”
Published: 05-05-2020, produktionshaeuser.de/voices

Physis
Video • 79’06”
Published: 09-04-2021, vntheatre.com

Physis Cinema
Video installation
First installation: 04-10-2022, Indigo Festival, Ljubljana

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Physis

2021 • Irresolvable
Video • 79’06”

Concept — Anita Wach, Bojan Jablanovec
Direction — Bojan Jablanovec
Choreography — Anita Wach, Kristina Aleksova
Text — Excerpts from Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zaratursta (Tako je govoril Zaratursta; Slovenska matica, Ljubjana 1984; translated by Janko Moder)
Friedrich Nietzsche — Gregor Zorc
Superfluous — Aleksandra Kmetič, Anita Wach, Daniele Tenze, Ena Kurtalić, Jernej Škof, Kristina Aleksova, Loup Abramovici, Mitja Lovše, Neža Blažič, Nina Goropečnik, Olja Grubić, Rok Kravanja, Sara Horžen, Timotej Novaković, Tina Habun (Tjaša Črnigoj), Rea Vogrinčič, Vesna Hauschild in Lena
Music — Eduardo Raon (extracts from works also used: Jacques Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers – Galop infernal, Aram Khachaturian: Sabre Dance, Jacques Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser, Charles Ives: Central Park In The Dark, Antonín Leopold Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony, Dean Kay – Kelly Gordon: That’s Life)
Voices — Gallina Vocal Group, conductor Ana Erčulj
Light design — Igor Remeta
Costume design — Olja Grubić
Producer — Špela Trošt
Production — Via Negativa

Video

Recording director — Vid Hajnšek
Director of Photography — Rok Kajzer Nagode
Cameras — Rok Kajzer Nagode, Vid Hajnšek, Vid Uršič, Špela Škulj
Editing — Bojan Jablanovec
Sound design — Eduardo Raon
Boom operator — Jaka Batič
Technical crew — Janko Oven, Andrej Petrovčič, Duško Pušica
Executive producer — Sara Horžen
Production — Via Negativa