Surpassing the beeline delves into the stories of Amsterdam's expat community. Stories of those who are emigrants when they leave home and become immigrants elsewhere; their past, present and sense of 'home' completely intertwined. The emigrant from one country, is the immigrant from another.
photos taken by Andy Kuiters, 2018
Immigration history, mainly written in the countries of arrival, has mostly focused on the problematic policies and experiences of entry, acceptance, rejection and/or placement of newcomers, while expats always bypass this circus because of their economic status.
photo by Olga Ganzha, 2023
Meet your fellow city dweller 'the expat' in an intimate setting as they share their stories and favourite dish with you. Come with an empty stomach, as a meal will be served during the performance.
During the previous edition of Frascati Issues: The (un)told city (November 2017), Abhishek Thapar presented an initial research on the Indian expat community in Amsterdam within Stadslab. Surpassing the beeline is a further elaboration of this.
The title 'Surpassing the beeline' comes from the idea that expats never walk a straight line from A to B when it comes to coming home or the concept of home. After all, their home is constantly in flux; constantly changing, shifting, shuffling.
photo by Olga Ganzha, 2023
Citation of the performance ‘Surpassing the Beeline’ directed by Abhishek Taphar in Frascati Theater, November 2018:
"After 11 years living in the Netherlands, I still do not feel completely Dutch. I will always be an immigrant. At the same time, I do not feel Russian anymore, still asking myself, who am I? I went back to eat white chalk from the sacred mountains where orthodox churches and monasteries are located. I really desired that chalk, and even though it seemed pure and sourced directly from nature, I was getting stomach pain, but I couldn’t stop eating.
For the past year, I have been in the practice of collecting and eating earth from across the world. Sometimes, it makes me feel like a world citizen. I started mixing different types of edible earth from different countries. This material has memory and keeps history of what the land has experienced. To make sense of who I am, I listened to these materials. It experienced shifting homes, wind, turbulences, love, loss. It would inform me rather than I inform it. Earth knows better than I do. I wanted to map the right composition of the material, which would sustain, and could represent me. However, different types of clay repel each other, and remain fluid. Of course, I still take pieces of ceramics and eat them.
Here are ceramics cups produced out of mixture of clays, edible earth found on the Dutch market, face masks, clays from my country and possibly some local Dutch earth. You are welcome to have a bite or taste them by licking. I am sharing with you my practice, and it’s up to you, if you take it or not. Maybe the cup already broke, while you were drinking tea, as all of these cups are at the verge of breaking. This project is living on a breaking point, which is negotiating between different soils, between different social/political histories and memories."
Credits
concept & direction: Abhishek Thapar
performance by Rinku Kalsy, Hilda Moucharrafieh, Vaishali Nanda, masharu, Sahil Sahni, YiLing Hung
