A Scenario Of A System Off
Images: Dora Đurkesac
A Scenario Of A System Off is a new performance by Mexican artist Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, which invites us to grapple with our sense of perception. In the gaps between memory and imagination, the work explores how everyday gestures, words and surroundings change when systems of language and categorisation start to falter. Repetitive loops made out of movement, text and sound are used to transform normal situations - like the simple phrase “I sat here” - into riddles, contradictions and poetic detours.
Three dancers move in dialogue with three “invisible” beings on the stage, forming a changeable interplay between bodies, voices and soundscapes. Lengths of material are used to create different spaces, becoming transparent shells that capture fleeting light or projections. The performance engages with the power of the imagination as a political and philosophical tool: Instead of presenting a linear narrative, the performance unfolds as a dynamic system with different levels of perception and possibilities. A Scenario Of A System Off transports the audience into a world in which meaning is not tied down, exploring how repetition, transformation and associative perception can open new paths towards an understanding, imagining, and living of the world.
Concept, choreography, text and performance: Ixchel Mendoza Hernández | Performance and co-creation: Angelo Petracca and Chihiro Araki | Sound and composition: Hyewon Suk | Light design, video mapping and subtitles: Annegret Schalke | Stage design and projection design and images: Dora Đurkesac | Costume: Malena Modéer | Dramaturgy: Jenny Mahla | Voice coach: Joséphine Evrard | Production: M.i.CA. | Distribution: Tammo Walter | Audio description text and editing: Swantje Henke and Gerald Pirner | Coproduction: Radialsystem | With the support of Something Great - Zentrum für Internationales Zeitgenössische Darstellende Künste | Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds |
Premiere: December 2025 Berlin, Germany
Three dancers move in dialogue with three “invisible” beings on the stage, forming a changeable interplay between bodies, voices and soundscapes. Lengths of material are used to create different spaces, becoming transparent shells that capture fleeting light or projections. The performance engages with the power of the imagination as a political and philosophical tool: Instead of presenting a linear narrative, the performance unfolds as a dynamic system with different levels of perception and possibilities. A Scenario Of A System Off transports the audience into a world in which meaning is not tied down, exploring how repetition, transformation and associative perception can open new paths towards an understanding, imagining, and living of the world.
Concept, choreography, text and performance: Ixchel Mendoza Hernández | Performance and co-creation: Angelo Petracca and Chihiro Araki | Sound and composition: Hyewon Suk | Light design, video mapping and subtitles: Annegret Schalke | Stage design and projection design and images: Dora Đurkesac | Costume: Malena Modéer | Dramaturgy: Jenny Mahla | Voice coach: Joséphine Evrard | Production: M.i.CA. | Distribution: Tammo Walter | Audio description text and editing: Swantje Henke and Gerald Pirner | Coproduction: Radialsystem | With the support of Something Great - Zentrum für Internationales Zeitgenössische Darstellende Künste | Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds |
Premiere: December 2025 Berlin, Germany
