Research project by Jelka Plate –
Summer 2022
DisAppearances uses performances and costumes to explore the question of who we are when we understand ourselves as non-human-only beings.
In terms of a culture of omission, DisAppearances imagines a world in which humans abandon their supposed position as the crown of creation and see themselves as part of a symbiotic planet.
Referring to the ancient term “larva” for disguising and making oneself visible by means of masks, I use various costumes to examine how disguises affect one’s own perception.
What happens when I lie as a tuft of grass next to other tufts of grass? What is it like to become a tree and not move from the spot?
In the summer months I disappeared for days in the Feldberg lake landscape. Some traces of this can be seen here in video stills and video excerpts of the filmed performances.
In cooperation with the photographer Tobias Still, I created a photo series on DisAppearances in Trentino in August 2022. As part of the international summer university Karnitz 2022, I led a DisAppearance workshop and exchanged ideas with scientists, artists and activists from Chile, Mexico and Brazil about whether and how the experience of DisAppearances can be a healing and empowering method for communities suffering from the consequences of extractivism and climate change.
DisAppearances aims to create an optimistic, applied and humorous contribution to a much needed positive narrative of taking back and embedding human action in the face of man-made climate change.
The audience for DisAppearances is random walkers, but also plants, animals, clouds and the sea.
Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.
Jelka Plate studied free art and stage design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg. Since then, she has been interested in art and theatre projects that move at the interface of art and politics. As a stage and costume designer, she works with numerous theatre groups. At the same time, she uses research to develop site-specific spatial installations and performances in public spaces.
More Information: https://www.jelka-plate.de/disappearances/