Katharina Schmelting / Cutterfly – The liberation of the Phantom
What within you wants to be liberated? What feelings and thoughts lie hidden beneath the deepest layers of your inner shadows? We all have something so deeply buried within us that we hardly dare to look at it ourselves, let alone show it to anyone else. A shadow within us that remains hidden yet still controls us. What do these unconscious processes do to us? They often influence our lives more than we realise. Taking a look inside can strengthen our self-development, lead to inner growth and connect us with our potential. ‘The Liberation of the Phantom’ deals with the ‘phantom’ as a metaphor for the hidden self: suppressed parts, unlived potential, energies that work without being visible. The aim is to create an abstract, poetic shadow theatre piece – an experimental interplay of shadow images, masks, movement, live sound and poetry. In terms of content, the project operates at the intersection of psychology and art and explores the themes of consciousness, identity and self-growth.
a poetic Shadow-Theatreplay with Masks
Instagram: @cuttterfly
www.cutterfly-productions.com
What is that, a phantom?
Something that is there and yet is not there.
Something you see and yet do not see.
A possible state, a potential, an energy, a being?
Something that wants to be said or done?!
A vision ? Or an illusion?
‘Someone has put us on the stage of this world.’
Hilarion Petzold “Theater – the Game of Life”
‘Auf die Bühne dieser Welt, hat irgendwer uns hingestellt.‘
My project is based on a poetic text by Hilarion Petzold: “Theatre – the game of life”. In a poetic way, it compares theatre with life and addresses many fundamental philosophical questions on the subject of self and self-growth. I worked with this text formend, shortened and supplemented it with my own words and feelings as well as thoughts from other great minds.
Basically, life is a game that we can never win, but only play. (referring to Coach Dieter Lange) The reward lies more in inventing our own rules of the game. The decisive factor in our game is whether we manage to determine our own rules, our fellow players and our role in life ourselves, thereby empowering ourselves. Those who do not play, are numb, they do not really experience. Experiences include negative ones. After a high comes a low, that is inevitable. Through that life teaches us and makes us stronger. If we want to grow we have to accept, that it’s going to be a ride. With courage and awareness, we can change ourselves and everything around us: by looking, pausing, listening carefully to ourselves and then acting instead of just reacting. True power and true freedom lies in the ability to decide which attitude we have towards everything that is happening. The piece opens up a space for thought and growth for the viewer and is intended to remind us that the concept of our self is not fixed, but fluid. And that we can decide who we are and have the power to shape ourselves and the world.
The idea is to create an immersive theatre experience in which the audience is seated in the middle of a circular space whose outer walls serve as projection surfaces for shadow theatre. The ‘theatre’ thus takes place around the audience. The audience is, so to speak, at the heart of the matter and is the actual centre. Slowly, the boundaries between outside and inside, between consciousness and subconsciousness, between observer and observed are dissolved. Different states of consciousness and the psyche are represented through shadow theatre, poetry and sound. The project ties in with my diploma thesis at Kunsthochschule Kassel about light as a design element connected to sound and my stay in Venice, where I learned the art of mask making. It integrates working with masks to explore the theme of the ‘self’.
Mask self made in Venice Italy.
Questions that inspire me during the process:
- Who are you?
- If beliefs shape you: What do you believe in?
- What is your greatest growth story?
- What role do you give yourself?
- What do you really feel?
- What do you do when no one is looking?
- What would happen if you met a higher version of yourself?
- How can you become that version?
- How can we dissolve resistance and blockages?
- What gives you security?
- What potential does the ‘unknown’ hold?
- What question in your life are you the answer to?
- What is your mission?
- What is the difference between our conscious and subconscious mind?
- How can we shape our subconscious mind, which determines 95% of who we are?
- How can we grow?
Modified excerpt from Hilarion Petzold’s ‘Theatre – The Game of Life’
They say life is a stage, the world a theatre,
and we all perform in this theatre every day,
even though we have forgotten that we are performing.
And it is rarely our own play that we are performing.
We were all actors and authors before we let others write our plays for us.
We have our stages everywhere:
in offices, factories, bars, living rooms.
Is your uniform less of a uniform than that of an actor?
Is your expression less of a mask than that of an actor?
Let us make the theatre of our lives our own.
Let us leave the audience and finally realise that we are only playing spectators!
Curtain up!
This performance is for me!
My stage, my play,
I am the actor,
I am the author and director,
I am my own technician!
The performance is for you.
You are the players.
Your play, your stage, you: everything.
I am not your actor.
I am my actor.
Sometimes I play spectator, sometimes the actor.
Sometimes I watch and play.
Look – player…at your performance.
I don’t want to play just any role, but my role.
Who wrote my role?
What role do I embody?
Only stepping out of character can set us free.
Escaping one’s script, writing one’s own play, is the most difficult task in life.
The script writes itself,
line by line,
word by word,
and is always several pages ahead of you.
Every scene is your performance.
In every role, you play yourself.
How could you step out of a role that has become second nature to you?
Who teaches you to play freely without fear?
The fear that constantly lurks behind the scenes.
What is behind your scenes?
If we were all directors – who could direct whom?
The best direction is imperceptible.
The most effective form of rule is whispering.
That is why we must always be vigilant and listen carefully to what we ourselves have to say.
Who dares to do that these days?
To pause and listen to yourself?
To look behind your own scenes?
What remains when you step out of your role?
Or rather: what emerges when you take on a new one?
Freedom must be seized anew in every scene,
otherwise it remains in the possession of those who possess it!
Whenever I enter a scene, it becomes my scene!
Every scene changes when I arrive.
In all scenes, I am the constant.
In all scenes the course of the action lies partly in my hands.
There is always only here,
surrounded by there.
There is always only the word,
surrounded by silence.
Every time has its place,
every place its time.
Every I has a you.
Every you, an I.
There is always only one act.
This act.
In this place.
At this time.
Understand the power of the moment.
The first act,
is always the only act,
and the last act.”
