By Sophia Rodríguez

The Garden Laboratorium

 

“Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.” - Malcolm X

The connection between kitschy Italian TV-shows and hooliganism? You might discover it in The Garden Laboratorium. In this new performance, Micha Goldberg & Sophia Rodríguez investigate the different gradations of violence, but aren’t afraid to use feathers and costumes. Can violence be legitimate? Can it be a constructive force, work as a healing power, or even provoke artistic qualities? Like two hooligans they explore the possibilities, with the audience as their laboratory rabbits.

People are permeated by violence, but most of them know how to constrain it, until there are no other options left. Excessive explosions of violence are then the case: extreme hooliganism, the fires in the suburbs of Paris, there are numerous examples. Isn’t there a different way? Can we canalize our violence to avoid extreme excesses? Can we strip off all negative connotations, and focus again on the initial cause of the violence used? 
In The Garden Laboratorium, Goldberg & Rodríguez hunt for a common use for violence, one that is pushing aside all negative connotations, and one that creates a bitter sweet sensation of a humanity that continues hitting just for fun.