Objects of Love

In July 2009, Agnes Limbos, a Belgian puppeteer , came to Israel to give a workshop on Object Theater. I know Agnes for years and love her work, I was not going to miss her workshop.The subject was "Love".I decided to work on a  short interview done to Derrida in which he is asked to define love. I saw it on the internet and knew it became the basis for my project.

I suggest you first look at the interview and then watch my performance.

here is Jacques Derrida:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj1BuNmhjAY

and watch here on youtube my work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPA3jO4J1sc

Love is a question of who and what. Is love the love of someone or the love of some thing?

Suppose I love someone, do I love someone for the absolute singularity of who they are? i.e. I love you because you are you. Or do I love your qualities, your beauty, your intelligence. Does one love someone, or does one love something about someone?

The difference between the who and the what at the heart of love, seperates the heart. It is often said that love is the movement of the heart. Does my heart move because I love someone who is an absolute singularity, or because I love the way that someone is?

Often love begins with a type of seduction. One is attracted because the other is like this or like that. Inversely, love is disappointed and dies when one comes to realise the other person doesn't merit our love. The other person isn't like this or that. So at the death of love, it appears that one stops loving another not because of who they are but because they are such and such [a person].

That is to say, the history of love, the heart of love, is divided between the who and the what. The question of Being is divided into what is it 'to Be'? What is 'Being'? The question of 'Being' is itself always already divided between who and what. Is 'Being' someone or some thing? I speak of it abstractly, but I think that whoever starts to love, is in love, or stops loving, is caught between this division of the who and the what. One wants to be true to someone - singularly, irreplaceably - and one perceives that this someone isn't x or y. They didn't have the qualities, properties, the images, that I thought I'd loved. So fidelity is threatened by the difference between the who and the what.

So do you love someone as a singularity? Or do you love some thing about that someone?

Suppose I love someone, do I love someone for the absolute singularity of who they are? i.e. I love you because you are you. Or do I love your qualities, your beauty, your intelligence?

Does one love someone, or does one love something about someone? The difference between the who and the what at the heart of love, seperates the heart. It is often said that love is the movement of the heart. Does my heart move because I love someone who is an absolute singularity, or because I love the way that someone is?

Often love begins with a type of seduction. One is attracted because the other is like this or like that. Inversely, love is disappointed and dies when one comes to realise the other person doesn't merit our love. The other person isn't like this or that. So at the death of love, it appears that one stops loving another not because of who they are but because they are such and such [a person].

That is to say, the history of love, the heart of love, is divided between the who and the what. The question of Being is divided into what is it 'to Be'? What is 'Being'? The question of 'Being' is itself always already divided between who and what. Is 'Being' someone or some thing? I speak of it abstractly, but I think that whoever starts to love, is in love, or stops loving, is caught between this division of the who and the what. One wants to be true to someone - singularly, irreplaceably - and one perceives that this someone isn't x or y. They didn't have the qualities, properties, the images, that I thought I'd loved. So fidelity is threatened by the difference between the who and the what.

So do you love someone as a singularity? Or do you love some thing about that someone?

AMANILI SINGS - an ancient lullaby from Mesopotamia in Shadow Theater

The above picture shows the market scene.

In the show black cutouts for the scenery are part of the screen. Into them come the colored puppets.An old lady sells grapes, a man sells beer, yet another sells date wine....This is happens in the morning, when Shamash the Sun comes out from between the mountains and Sin the Moon leaves the sky sailing in his boat. In Akkadian the name for the main street was "suku". In Hebrew we call the market the "shuk", same root. Just as the main street in a Roman city was the called the "cardo" ( from cardinal, central, heart, cardiac...) and all along it were the stands with merchandise, also along the suku, the mesopotamians sold their products.In the Old City in Jerusalem you can see a old roman cardo-today a modern "market' of shops selling mainly souvenirs and Judaica.

 Artists and collaborators

 Summary , scenes and characters by order of appearance

  Sources

On lullabies, Lorca and this show.

Photo album.