“It’s too cold for the spirits to live here”
“A mesmerising and arresting performance” - audience
Fierce and vulnerable, violent and loving. A visceral experience on life and death, the will to survive in search of home. A process of becoming. On colonial heritage and displacement. On the extraction of land, trees, life and nature. An opening wound. An experience in which the lost spirits haunt the peripheries of the space. A non-linear spiral that merges past, present and future. Endless.
*The work-in-progress version is a complete performance which stands on itself. Some changes will be made in the subtitles to enhance the flow and poetic quality and the tuning of the sound levels to a 5.1. surround version still have to be done. Also the performance can be made slightly shorter or longer, depending on the program in which it will be presented.
On October 16th, 1958, a family fled Indonesia. They spent a month at sea aboard the M.S. Sibajak on a voyage to The Netherlands. When they arrived, it was getting winter. Coming from the tropics, the cold was a shock. The family quickly noticed that the spirits who had always been with them in Indonesia were no longer there - they had left them along the journey.
In the ‘work-in-progress' cut of the work, the M.S. Sibajak is reimagined as both a portal and a vessel that sails, not only across oceans, but through time itself - where past, present, and future collapse into one another. Within this space, the lingering presence of the spirits haunts the peripheries. The search for spirits becomes a methodological approach to illuminate complexities of colonial family history that had long remained hidden, literally stowed away in biscuit tins in the attic. By unveiling the family archive, the stories of the ancestors become tangible again. Schift interweaves the archival materials with footage from her recent journey to Indonesia, creating a layered narrative that bridges personal experience with historical displacement.
Performance experience
Part 1: Radio
The performer walks towards the radio. The film begins in the dark with a soundscape, after a while images start to appear. The performer puts the radio on and starts searching for frequencies. Sometimes the sound can be distinguished as music, sometimes it stays noise. It begins soft and becomes louder over time.
The radio is put off at when in the film a man (the uncle) turns of the radio.
Part 2: Silence
Part 3: Knife
Part 4: Cutting trees
Link to the film (with password) https://vimeo.com/toscaschift/itstoocoldforthespiritstolivehere
Link to recording performance (with password)
https://vimeo.com/toscaschift/performance
Part 1: The soundscape starts without me, when the audience enters the sound is already playing. When the audience is seated or stands, then I come from behind the corner at the entrance. I climb on the elevated platform and play the radio.
Part 2: I climb from the platform onto the hill of chairs, through the ‘forest’ towards the light of the projector. I will do something with the light, maybe I use some branches and leaves that block the light.
Part 3: I get the knife and start a search for wood. I make eye contact with the audience.
Part 4: I start cutting some trees. And gather the material on the elevated platform. I start to make a wooden rifle (not sure yet). I will go back and forth to get more wood.
Part 5: When I finish making my wooden rifle, I will climb to the center of the hill and shoot the image on the screen, then I leave the space.
Part 6: Last part of the film without me being present.
Conceptual choices + possibilities
Floor plan
Physical elements and requirements
Radio - Sony Dream Machine radio
Recorder/Microphone - Zoom recorder attached to 1 or 2 speakers on the ground that amplify the live sound of the radio. Preferably the speakers should be separate from the speakers that play the sound of the projected film.
Projector - 6000+ lumen, 16:9 with a wide angle lens
Screen - 6 to 7 meters wide
Sound system - Preferably I use an 5.1 surround system that’s already inside the space.
Space - 80 m2 to 130 m2, a sealing with a hight of 4 meter or more is preferred because of the hight of the trees. Also a space that relates to the colonial history of Amsterdam can add to the experience of the performance.
Costs