Living Memory / Living Absence

“Living Memory/Living Absence” is an exploration of memory and exile, and the pain of these experiences within the bodies of genocide survivors. In this interdisciplinary piece Anida Yoeu Esguerra performs poetry with movement inspired by Butoh set against a video and sound backdrop of her memories in Cambodia. The work traces Esguerra’s poetic fears of returning to a country after 25 years of absence; the incredible joy she felt immersed in ancient Cambodian traditions; and the irreversible legacy of a genocide that lingered in the streets and countryside like stretched shadows without owners. The show is a journey through a landscape of fragmented old memories, an open ache for Home, and the junction of ancient cultures and modern curiosities. “Living Memory/Living Absence” reminds the audience that it is up to the living to remember histories, to create living traditions and to pass along the visible and the invisible stories; that is how culture evolves and survives.