Simone Aughterlony

What might interpersonal relationships look like if they were not predefined by social norms? What structures get in the way as we search for fulfilling intimacy and sexuality? With her new work, a co-production of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Simone Aughterlony once again proposes new constellations of family. In “Maintaining Stranger” the artist, who lives in Berlin and Zurich, creates a sparse stone desert as a cruising zone where conventions, space and time do not exist. Detached from social constraints, an unsuspected possibility of encounters and commitment emerges. The interwoven fates of the protagonists relate stories of failed relationships, respect and misunderstandings, while reflecting on living together in an utopian, post-colonial age. Without a beginning, without an end, without a homeland, without a script and without history, the characters meet and collectively deconstruct the notion of strangeness and intimacy. This gives rise to a community of strangers who find each other through shared experiences instead of attributions and claims of ownership. “Maintaining Stranger” tracks the drifts and gaps between people where intimacy is most intensely felt. Love is nothing personal, difference always is.