Statements of the jury
Preliminary remarks
«We would like to thank all the nominated artists for their generosity and their commitment to their own particular artistic practices, which have been reflected in a wide range of inspiring performances showing the vitality of the present performing arts field.
As jury members, we are aware that our knowledge and understanding of the contexts in which many of the artists create their work are limited, and that we experienced them in the specific environment of the international theatre festival in Zurich in the summer of 2022.
While discussing the nominees, we paid special attention to the impact we could imagine these awards might have on both their artistic journey and the field as a whole. We considered the urgency of the work, the singularity of the artistic language and approach, as well as the potential for future development.
With our selection, we would like to highlight artistic practices that re-define the contemporary in their own unique ways and combine different mediums, such as movement, poetry, music and visual art in their performances to create very specific artistic proposals and audience experiences.»
ZKB Patronage Prize 2022: «The Love Behind My Eyes» by Ali Chahrour
«With ‹The Love Behind My Eyes›, Ali Chahrour invites his audience to access a very intimate space, a world of emotion where love and grief compete, mourning and tenderness intertwine. It is a poetic journey and a deeply political performance, based on an ancient tale, a love story. If legend or reality (it doesn’t matter): it reveals how the past claims its legacy in present life. Movement, score and body language echo different temporalities at once, weaving a performative experience that is as urgent as it feels eternal. Everything happens in the moment, right now. Everything has already happened. Both realities are true in this creation, following a nonlinear concept of time.
The careful and virtuosic composition of space, lights and music highlight the radical tenderness of gestures choreographed in this piece. With breathtaking slowness and precision, it shows two bodies full of sensuality and love, overcome by great sadness and infinite oppression.
The singer on stage – a mother, a mourner – appears as a figure between two worlds, opening a space of acceptance for the lovers’ embrace while moving between the performers and the audience, acting as a witness who demands more from us than voyeurism.
We would like to acknowledge that this piece was created by Ali and his collaborators in Beirut in the time of the pandemic and other severe crises, insisting on intimacy, personal stories and embodied knowledge while at the same time addressing a larger spectrum of collective social issues.»
ZKB Acknowledgement Prize 2022: «No soy unicornio» by Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas
«From the moment that Martha entered the stage, she captivated us with her strong presence and her unique sense of humour. Her performance piece ‹No soy unicornio› is rich in poetry as well as concrete images from the social-cultural context of Havana. The dramaturgy of the performance is both simple and of striking clarity. It is centred around the mythical creature of the unicorn, a creature outside of the norm, inviting the audience to imagine an alternative reality. While unpacking and interacting with a curated selection of objects, which hold both personal and collective significance, the artist manages to brilliantly question labels of sexuality, gender and identity. The generosity, thoughtfulness and fluidity of her performance, as well as the freedom with which she assembles and disassembles meanings and mediums reflect a layered subject matter, while the figure of the unicorn and its symbolism remain fluid and ever-changing. The artistic team dealt with the live translation of the spoken-word improvisation in a beautifully playful way that shows the maturity and readiness of the artist to present her work in different international contexts.
In Martha, we spotted a very talented writer, creator and performer and are curious to see what happens next on her artistic journey.»