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«certain opening acts» at HAMLET

Duo Show with Julia Skof and Andrea Fortmann, January 19 until February 16, 2025

Artists

Andrea Fortmann, Julia Skof

Institution

HAMLET

Location

Zurich-Oerlikon

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

hamlet.love

Exhibition View Duo Show with Julia Skof and Andrea Fortmann «certain opening acts» at HAMLET, Zurich-Oerlikon, 2025 / Photo: Alice Speller / Courtesy: the artists and HAMLET

certain opening acts

Imagine you are at the opera. You have a cough and are sucking desperately on a lozenge. You want to blow your nose, and the tag of your shirt is cutting into the back of your neck. You are trying to focus. And in the strain of this moment, you are suddenly struck by one of those rare moments in life; utter enveloping beauty. The stage. The chair. The voice of the singer vibrating against the ceiling. Your shirt tag. The cough. All combined to render an earth-shattering affirmation and you think to yourself; thank God I am alive. Now imagine this happened, but not at the opera. Instead, you are standing in sweatpants. You are at home in your apartment building. Your ear pressed against the vent, as you try not to cough, while your neighbor tells her daughter it is time for a bath. Thank God I am alive, you think to yourself. The spaghetti pot, now boiling over. Sometimes it is the romantic bleating of a mezzo-soprano on a perfectly planned evening. Sometimes it is the car radio spilling in from someone else‘s afternoon that reminds you that you are here on this planet. You cannot force the sublime, you caution yourself as you climb the stairs to your flat. But then again, maybe since you are all living here, stacked on top of each other. It is like a lightning rod. Maybe more energy is pulled your way. Maybe all those never-truly-silent moments in the elevator. On the terrace. Are all adding together. Even the small acts are loud. You are not alone, is what you scream to the other occupants when you leave the coffee cup on the concrete ledge near the door. You are all janitors. Custodians of the silk which passes between each other’s lives. The slam of the door. The accordion folds of a voice on a phone as it fades down the hall. And maybe it is all a performance. An entire life offering the edges of drama.

Julia Skof and Andrea Fortmann

Andrea Fortmann (*1991, artist, lives and works in Lucerne) and Julia Skof (*1992, theatre maker, lives and works in Zurich) got to know each other through an invitation to a duo show at Hamlet. For certain opening acts, they regularly met in the rooms of Hamlet over a period of two months. Their collective process resulted in 15 scores.

Performers

Zoe Dowlen, Anna Eberle, Liam Rooney, Anna Vankova

Sound

Walking and Falling by Laurie Anderson

References

Alice Notley, Martina Caluori, Laurie Anderson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jack Halberstam, Sophia Fritz, Siri Hustvedt

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Exhibition View Duo Show with Julia Skof and Andrea Fortmann «certain opening acts» at HAMLET, Zurich-Oerlikon, 2025 / Photo: Alice Speller / Courtesy: the artists and HAMLET