Cicadas lament

This is a live performative experiment entitled “Cicadas lament” that touches the issue of refugee crisis with her focus being mostly in the Aegean sea. For some of the refugees, the sea is the place for a new direction, but for others is the reason why cicadas mourn. Using video, music and sound as my scenographic tools she created a live audiovisual, performative experience in a black box at HKU Pastoe building. Sofia wanted to translate her anger and sadness of this tragic situation, into music and sound. In the beginning of the video there was an electronic melodic sound that she was playing live. It was a composition of cicadas sounds in an electronic music form. The combination of poetic text with the video is a narration on the different ways she feels when she is experiencing the sea. During the video she made some melodic vocals giving the sense of hearing a lament coming from the sea. Additionally, film adds another layer to the space and connects the existent place with the imaginary one. The content of the film projection works as a metaphor of her inner feelings and concerns.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

At the end of the film she stood in front of the screen and she turned her body towards the spectators staring at them intensively in silence. Later on, she passed them on some questionnaires asking what was their experience like. Most of them answered that they felt relaxed and they imagined that they were laying down at the sea. After picking up the completed questionnaires, gradually, some data started appearing on the screen, statistics on population’s movements and deaths in the Aegean sea.

After this experience, people expressed that they felt guilty with their lack of awareness. In the end, she realized that the poetic text that was included in the video, confused the audience and didn’t help them understand what is really happening in the Aegean sea.