A Hand’s Turn

A Hand’s Turn is what we could call a private session for two spectators at a time; it is a gesture, in a subtle choreographic sense, involving a book and a performer. In the first part of this solo piece―a solo though referring to a plurality of presences―, the performer unfolds the practices of reading, as she turns the sheets of paper from right to left, in a steady and continuous flow, proposing a duration, a trajectory, a story. The repetition of the linear movements of the hands identifies with the repetitive back and forth motions of the eyes as they scan the content and surface of the pages. This ocular itinerary, the decryption of the signs, the time and temporality created by the hand movements, the spacing of the pages deconstruct and re-assign the function of the gaze.

In the second part of the encounter, the performer dances with her back to the audience; with the use of a small hand mirror she guides the visitors’ gaze in the act of seeing. After the session, one can purchase the book, tracing back their own experience, looking at their own practices of seeing ―and partly themselves in the show.