Floating – Curatorial Statement
November 26, 2010
By Associate Curator, Dani Fecko
Floating is a poignant comedy that asks the question, are we defined by where we come from?
I am a first generation Canadian, of Czechoslovak descent. My father moved here from Slovakia in 1969, and my mother, who was brought up in a Czech household in South Africa, moved here in 1981. My blood is from the other side of the world, and so is a large portion of my history, and yet I am a proud Canadian. I have often found myself pondering what my identity really is. With roots deep in Bohemia, it is Vancouver that has seen me grow. Is it the years of Czechoslovak (for those of you waiting to tell me that they are two separate countries – I was born before the split and my parents are from both sides) heritage that makes me who I am, or is it the mountainous, seaside city struggling to marks its place amidst the metropolis’ of the world that defines me.
One of the reasons I feel so fortunate working at PuSh is the opportunity it allows me to help bring people together in a spirit of dialogue, conversation and exchange. These things can be realized in so many ways – through artist round tables, artist talkbacks, pre show talks, community conversations, essays, interviews, conversations over a drink at the bar, blog post comments, and so on. But at the root of it all, they can be experienced in their simplest form – sitting in a darkened theatre with a group of strangers experiencing something.
I feel as though Vancouver is at a tipping point when it comes to defining itself and now, the eve of our 125th Birthday, seems like the perfect time for us to dive deeper into this definition. This makes our presentation of Floating that much more important.
It is my sincere hope that audience members will join Hugh Hughes and his collaborative partner Sioned Rowlands as they travel on the island of Angelesey, which, in 1982, separated from Wales and begin to drift across the Atlantic and into the Arctic. This charming piece from the U.K.’s Hoipolloi uses slide projectors, fishing rods, costumes, maps and lamps, to take you on a whimsical journey which will delight, entertain, and I hope, foster the question of what it is that defines us as humans and Vancouverites? Is it our environment that makes us who we are? is it our experiences? And at what point is the line blurred between where we are from and where we want to be?
Dani Fecko, Associate Curator.
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