I lost

I lost is part of Jessica Huber's Rituals of tenderness

I lost* with Géraldine Chollet (CH) and Lindiwe Matshikiza (ZA) & João Renato Orecchia Zúñiga (ZA)

I lost** with Simone Aubert, Géraldine Chollet, Michelle Ettlin, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Jessica Huber & Sarah Palin

I lost*** with contributions by Henry Mubiru, Sankar Venkateswaran, Wanjiku Mwawugan, Noemi Lakmaier, Martha Luisa Hernandez and Kim Noble.

17.09.2020 – Gessnerallee Zürich – I lost*
19.09.2020 – Gessnerallee Zürich – I lost*

24.08.2021 – Theaterspektakel Zürich – I lost**

24.8. - 31.8.2021 - Theaterspektakel Zürich - I lost***

We lose a lot – banal objects, deep feelings, loved ones, and collective properties, such as, e.g., glaciers or language. On the one hand, we often experience loss as something negative, distressing; on the other hand, the loss of fears or inhibitions can be invigorating. The word “lost” cannot only be interpreted as a loss of something, but also as “being lost”. Some losses come to our attention immediately while others emerge slowly, quietly, sometimes humorously, sometimes sadly. And sometimes we develop a longing for something that we have never possessed.

I lost* is the first sharing: an intimate "one on one" experience in which Michelle and Jessica share the first vestiges of mutual research that they are conducting together with artists and passers-by and which they will continue further in various form(at)s for at least one year. I lost is an episode of Jessica Huber’s research series Venus’ Eyebrow (a feral song’s call): Rituals of Tenderness at the Gessnerallee.

I lost** is the second sharing: an evening in the open-air, next to the water and close to the fire – an evening of listening to the sounds, music, voices, songs, stories and the dancing body in the dark. Maybe it's a kind of concert – or a ritual… I lost** is an archive of voices by Michelle Ettlin and Jessica Huber which collects contributions on “loss” from artists and companions (- and sometimes also what they've found). The two artists share traces of their multi-voiced research, and invite theatre-maker and performer Lindiwe Matshikiza, dancer Géraldine Chollet and the musicians Sarah Palin and Simone Aubert to join them to create a tender, informal ritual woven through elements of soundscapes,music, stories and dance – washing it off and carried away by the waves of the lake. …and ending around the fire, feeding it with wood and the things we want to let go of that evening.

I lost*** A kind of Podcast with „lost & found“ contributions by Henry Mubiru, Sankar Venkateswaran, Wanjiku Mwawugan, Noemi Lakmaier, Martha Luisa Hernandez and Kim Noble. All artists that should have come to Zürich, but lost the possibility because of the pandemic. We wanted to bring at least their voices here.

“Tenderness is maybe the most modest form of love. It is the kind of love that does not appear in the scriptures or the gospels, no one swears by it, no one cites it. It has no special emblems or symbols, nor does it lead to crime, or prompt envy. It appears wherever we take a close and careful look at another being, at something that is not our ‘self’.” Olga Tokarczuk, 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature Speech