FATHERLAND
The visual performance
Fatherland combines elements of durational performance art, documentary, and video.
Director Jan Mocek builds it on an intimate
and multi-layered situation: he meets his father,
Jan Mocek, a man thirty-four years older than
himself, on the stage. The same name and the obvious physical resemblance of both men serves as an impetus to play with the theme of identity,
in which the presence of the father transforms into the future of the son.
Who will I be in 2052? How will my body – and my thoughts – change? To what extent is it possible to deviate from inherited behavior patterns and traditional life scenarios? Fatherland is an invitation to become involved in a collective meditation about time, our relationship with the country we come from, and the various alternatives for our own futures.
In addition to the personal documentary level at which both incarnations of Jan Mocek share autobiographical details and micro-stories through repetitive verbal variations, the performance also contains a political dimension. It explores the theme of masculinity within the context of the male family line, set against the background of the disintegration and subsequent rediscovery of both our individual and collective identities. It is thus in its own way a testimony of today’s Czechia, standing at the crossroads of past, present, and future.
Director: Jan Mocek
Performers: Jan Mocek, Jan Mocek
Sound: Matouš Hekela
Lighting design: David Prokopič, Ondej Kyncl
The performance is realized in coproduction with Festival 4+4 days in motion and Archa Theatre as a part of the Archa.lab Art Residency Program.
Funding has also been provided by Municipality of Prague, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, IN SITU, the State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic, and the Life of an Artist Foundation
