The Experiment #5: The Coming Silence

Calgary, AB – ReLoCate and TRAction present Part One of The Experiment #5 with The Coming Silence a self-guided walking tour past a series of solo installations by the dance theatre company kloetzel&co. from on May 1-2, 2021 from 3-4:30 pm on Prince’s Island Park. The event will also include an online presentation – all walkers will receive a link to this presentation after completing the walking tour.

The Coming Silence is a walking tour (and online presentation) that queries the divisions humans create between themselves and the rest of the biotic world. With performers precisely embodying the postures of both human and non-human animals, the work ponders humanity’s links to other species via an eerie reenactment of the natural history museum display case.

The Coming Silence is crafted so that all walkers may stroll along a particular route (of approximately one kilometer) witnessing a series of solo installations (each at least 3 meters from the path).  As walkers wander through this ‘museum’, they view subtle and/or uncanny shifts of the body as well as encounter the difficult role of being a voyeur of the taxidermic display. Walkers may start the tour at the entrance to the Chevron Learning Pathway (at the East end bridge onto the island) and progress along the pathway all the way to the Prince’s Island Bridge over Memorial Drive. All interested walkers must register online ahead of time in order for facilitators to ensure staggered start times with cohort groups only. Walkers must be masked and maintain social distancing at all times during the tour and facilitators will be on site to support such measures.

The Coming Silence comments on the notion of extinction, whether through viral, climatic or ecological means, and highlights humanity’s ethical dilemmas in the Anthropocene.

The walking tour is FREE, but all walkers must register for a start time. Please register here: https://forms.gle/LafxdYg5PzpRyRSG9. The walking tour will be paired with a virtual presentation that can be viewed after the tour. A link to this virtual presentation will be sent to registrants by email after each tour.

*Please note that this tour follows a dirt pathway.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.