Cooper & Gorfer - Between these folded walls, Utopia

Humanitarian tragedies caused by wars and the pervasive effects of climate change are causing immeasurable waves of migration and suffering. They make us wonder, can we imagine a better world? Struck by the realisation that we are living in a loss of Utopia, Cooper & Gorfer work with young women in local communities whose lives have been shattered by forced migration. What are these women’s dreams, identities and secret longings?

This utopian theatre takes the viewer into a continuous play of surfaces and woven structures of architecture and nature, caught in an unending enclosed space of walls, gardens and doorways. Inspired by the multi-layered and non-linear narratives of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths, Cooper and Gorfer simulate architectural elements that were once built with utopian intentions. In this world of illusions, the women are adorned with a small array of personal items from former lives.