TRACK: Welcome To Our Guesthouse #8

About this edition

Time plays a crucial role in how we tell our stories. It intertwines emotion, experience, distance, and closeness in our perception of the world. How does time influence your reality? How does it shape the narratives that connect us with each other? Sometimes reality feels far fetched, while we are deeply touched by the proximity of our dreams. In this paradox lies the key to connecting with each other and the world around us. What does it mean to dream and to live together in these different realities? Every detail in the future, every memory of the present, and every dream in the past tells a story. Poetry lies in the small things, in the nuances of our experiences. How do these moments shape our view of reality? What is an elusive dream for one person may be a cherished memory for another. Don’t we all have a moment in time when we look back with a sense of longing? Something that touches us, inspires us, and connects us in our quest for meaning.   

We present the WTOG program as TRACK: a theatrical route through the building of TR8 William Boothlaan. Join the three makers, Camilo Mejía (BE), Fariborz Karimi (NL) and Liza Sulaiman (NL) during Welcome to Our Guesthouse #8 | Crossing Realms: When distance unfolds.. Connection emerges on a remarkable journey through the diverse layers of time, nostalgia, and distance through their universe. Let us invite you to be inspired, to be encouraged to dream and to make you remember and connect.

During Welcome To Our Guesthouse #8 Camilo Mejía will work on his research project VAIVÉN in which he revisits, through his connection with dance and music, ideas about transformation, multiplicity, agency, and belonging. He navigates these ideas in order to expand and intersect the narratives that are in place for a black, queer, and migrant body.   

Fariborz Karimi presents his research project Whispered Dreams which began as a series of letters and texts exchanged between his close friend Mona (a writer and actress based in Tehran) and Fariborz. Starting from these texts, they are revisiting their connection, friendship, and artistic collaboration, considering gender and lived experiences—Fariborz' in Amsterdam and hers in Tehran. Due to the distance, their collaboration takes place remotely, which presents certain challenges in their creative process and performative setups. This distance is integral to the concept of the work, posing challenges, particularly in relation to audience interaction.  
Thursday 28 November, Fariborz himself will not be able to attend WTOG. He created an alternative version of Whispered Dreams so you can still experience his work.

Liza Sulaiman will work on her researchproject called The Red turns Dark Blue. The concept of The Red turns Dark Blue delves into the paradox of resilience, particularly in the context of war and conflict, where the necessity for resilience itself is a profound tragedy. It explores how the need to endure hardship can carry both a personal and collective cost, examining the interplay between survival and loss through movement, percussive and electronic music and digital media.