Reality Check

In conditions of no limitations or surveillance, what choices and actions can one make? Reality-Check, a technique used during the process of lucid dreaming to recognize the fantasy of our dreams, is the title of the interactive performance/research by choreographer Mey Seifan with a group of artists and experts coming from different disciplines. With her company TANWEEN, Seifan has been archiving late night-night dreams by Syrians since 2011. The Syrian Dreams Archive has inspired artistic projects, contemplating common vulnerabilities, different realities, and movements in dreams. When the archive and the artistic projects expanded, relocated and interacted, it was revealed that the expressed trauma among the Syrians was not specifically Syrian. Similarities to other dreams/nightmares during Nazi Germany before WWII and the lockdown during the corona virus pandemic tell us that our reality is somehow located in dreams found in different geographies and times. Nonetheless, we also feel safe listening to the same lullaby. Does our rapidly changing reality need a check? A project of Mey Seifan in collaboration with Dramaturgy: Ziad Adwan Performer: Annette Assmy, Gizem Akman, Bassam Dawood, Amr Karkout, Fatina Laila, Roua Reshah, Eneko Sanz, Layal Seifan Visual Artist & Cognitive Dream Research: Mert Akbal Choreographical objects/ RADIATAS: Lorenzo Malloni Music: Saleh Katbeh Set design: Theresa Scheitzenhammer Costumes, Media design: Duygu Kaban Make-up artist: lauperrea Video documentation: Mouna Assali Photography: Mohamad Badarne observing researcher: Hazem Saleh communication und Press: Majdolen Haidar Production manager: Peer Stark Producer: Ghassan Hammash Production firm: Barzakh gGmbH