Samara Hersch & Lara Thoms

In 2018, the schoolgirl Harper Neilson re­fused to stand while singing the Australian anthem. She said that a significant percentage of people on the continent were not as free as the text so eagerly claims. This act of refusal sparked a national de­bate on the meaning of nation­building, belonging and exclusion.

With «Please Stand», Samara Hersch and Lara Thoms have created a stage for this debate. Together with three young adults and the poet Negar Rezvani – who due to travel restrictions will only be present digitally – they scrutinise how myths are built around national identity and patriotism. Why do the anthems of many states sing of free­dom while excluding so many people from it? Who is «we» and who the «others»?

«Please Stand» is the latest project of the artistic duo investigating alternative stories with adolescents. In 2019, Hersch and Thoms presented «We All Know What’s Happening» at the festival and won the ZKB Audience and the ZKB Patronage Prizes. Now they are back and invite us to reflect on which songs are still worth singing while stand­ing, sitting, kneeling or, as the writer Ocean Vuong suggests, should best be walked away from. (af)