Where are you from?

No, Where are you really from?

Where is your accent from?

 

This autobiographical performance explores themes of belonging, multiculturalism and rejection. Stemming from my own experience of growing up in Sweden and the internal challenges faced when trying to inhabit three cultures at once. With the aim of exploring identity and what it means to be multicultural in a modern society I experimented with how immigration and emigration changed my own cultural identity and experience. The future holds huge potential for culturally diverse populations and we must learn how to adapt to such a world. The underlying themes I would like to explore are the need to identify humans in an increasingly self conscious age, highlighting inner insecurities as well as insecurities of geographical space. The performance itself is framed in a public versus private sphere, with the public dedicated to the facts that are often stated in society, and the private being the space where I have the freedom to choose what stories I want to tell. I use three performers to act as my countries that will dictate and guide me through a chaotic world. The separate countries are causing me to feel like they are in a constant battle to be on top, but which country gets to lead? Is multicultural identity a zero sum game? The three public acts are inspired by true feelings and events that have happened in my life, what society decides, acceptance and rejection from my own cultures and the chaos of languages. How society decides where and how you can tell your stories, perhaps it is not the right time, maybe not the right place. Society identifies what we are, instead of allowing us to understand what we are. What happens when my cultures are separated and become a full person? What happens when they appear all at once? The private acts are a contradiction the public, made up of personal life stories and questions of identity. There was a curiosity to explore the way we sound to society, how language can change and how we are perceived by people around us, the chaos of being multilingual and how it changes your identity. 

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I was highly influenced by the works of Pina Bausch and Anders Ekman, who work closely with performers identity and letting them explore it through movement. Initially I set out to mainly focus on identity and belonging, not necessarily focusing on autobiography, but the more I researched the more I understood that I wanted to explore my own identity. I continued to focus on internal emotions that occurred when talking about what my identity was and where I was from, writing down ideas and then working with movement to make them come to life. I was also influenced by surrealism and the Theatre of the Absurd. Playing games with movement and imagination led me to create scenes that stem from feelings and gestures. In terms of autobiography and storytelling I was inspired by my family’s stories and the idea of how much we are affected by the geographical decisions our parents made. I wanted to understand my own story, to ask questions and to use this as an open and honest forum.

 

In my research I have found that performances that deal with identity, belonging and multiculturalism tend to often include African-American performers dealing with racism and belonging in America. We are all responsible to tell our stories, to widen the perspective of our society and to grow together as humans and be more open minded. I believe that my work can add a new perspective to the conversation, perhaps not the exact conversation about race but about the complexity of identities. Politically it is a subject we all should deal with, Europe is changing, people are moving around more and there might only be mixed people in the near future. Artistically I believe I can add my own spin to the autobiographical community, my story might be unique to the ones who listen, but I am far from being the only one. I want to create theatre and stories that can transport people on the same journey and gain further understanding of the emotions. I hope that the audience will hear the stories and go on an imaginative journey, for them to connect with their inner emotions and start to get to know themselves better. And if nothing else, to understand what people like me go through when you ask them: where are you really from?