A place that exists somewhere between a garden, a hospital and a cemetery. Two young people intertwine the lives of their families. In the midst of an archive of personal documents, collected over many years, they navigate their way through a landscape of loss.
In last portrait, ashleyho+domeniknaue combine text, sound, dance and visual poetry into a performance that both searches for and invents a space: a space that is permeable, fleeting and flexible enough to deal with loss, grief and letting go.
“As part of a generation that is acutely aware of loss,” they say, “we obsessively follow the changes taking place, fully aware that documenting the present, what is there, also shifts the focus onto what could disappear. How can we move forward without drowning in nostalgia or getting stuck out of fear of loss?”
Ho Yuhan Ashley (1999, Singapore) and Domenik Naue (1998, Germany) met during their dance studies at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem, which they completed in 2022. They see performance as a social practice and their work as a proposal for how to face difficult realities through vulnerability and playfulness. They have been working together for more than five years. last portrait is part of this ongoing artistic dialogue, shaped each time by the places in which it takes form.
With:
ashleyho+domeniknaue
Credits
Concept, performance, sound & visual design: ashleyho+domeniknaue
Scenography (with support from): Lena Michel van Drie, Pam Sikkink
Dramaturgy: Elowise Vandenbroecke
Styling: Cain Wittenhaus
Technical & lighting support: Edwin van Steenbergen
Technical director on tour: Martin Kaffarnik
Video: Paul Sixta
Production & public relations: Dansateliers
Tour management: Kira Koplin
Co-production: Dansateliers, SPRING Festival, Over het IJ
Photo: Ardy Cahyo
In collaboration with: Oriente Occidente, Dance Nucleus, Studio Plesungan
With financial support from: Asia-Europe Foundation, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Janivo Stichting, Van den Ende Foundation
Process guidance: Gabriel Pietro Marullo
Thanks to Roelroel and Gary Shepherd for the technical support with the sound.
last portrait was made possible with support from the Nieuwe Makers Regeling of the Fonds Podiumkunsten, in collaboration with Dansateliers and the SPRING Performing Arts Festival in Utrecht. The performances during Fast Forward take place with support from the Snelloket grant of the Fonds Podiumkunsten.
