Sandra Chatterjee & Friends
Photos: Fabienne Hübener
Video Documentation
Impressions (3 Minutes):
Trailer:
Full Performance (96 Minuten):
ABOUT THE PIECE
While clothing produced in unfair international conditions of production is displayed in local boutiques, the physical risk and labour that goes into each of these garments is outsourced to India, China or Bangladesh. People’s sweat from work and fear, the pesticides, oils and solvents to which their bodies are exposed, are masked and suppressed – and not just in fashion production. Sweat carries this industrialized exploitation and is at the same time an expression of the uniqueness of each individual person in this machinery. The performance “SWEAT – Smells of Labour” takes up this complex entanglement and develops a multi-layered examination of the smells associated with work. “SWEAT – Smells of Labour” uses dance, music and olfactory performance to examine sweat in the context of consumption, work, exploitation, social class and neo-colonial trade and production relations. Workers‘ songs and percussion meet electronic soundscapes. Smells determine dance and storytelling, the performers translate sensual perception into moving impulses. Workers themselves have their say through interviews and sweat-soaked clothing.
Details
Performance with dance, text, live music, olfactory elements and projections
Duration: approx. 90 minutes without intermission
Performers: 4 dancers, 3 musicians
Crew on tour: 1 tour manager, 1 technician, 1 costume and set designer
Language: multilingual, mainly English and German, can be performed for English speaking audiences
Concept
In a space that conveys the atmosphere of a factory, the performance alternates between intense, sweaty, exhausting movements based on concrete movements from manual labor, entertainment, theoretical reflection on the continuity of exploitation, intimate interviews with (factory) workers and the suggestion of abundance: an everyday excess of products – an almost endless, superfluous choice, sensory overload, decisions – often, not whether we can buy something, but what we want to buy; a consumer behavior that is entangled in global relations of exploitation to the point of perpetuating enslavement and the establishment of ever new SEZs (Special Economic Zones).
Enslavement is in continuity with racist, colonial trade relations. Colonial power relations and trade, exploitation, enslavement and capitalist economic systems are still inextricably linked today. And this entanglement is evident in our everyday lives when we reach for a new pair of shoes, coffee or sugar in the store. But what are the alternatives?
The aim of the performance is to open up an affective space in which these issues can be brought closer to the audience on a sensual level. How can we bring to the foreground the smell of sweat that we should forget, that we should not be moved by when it comes to our positive consumption choices? The project is based on a close connection to a workers‘ canteen in Howrah, West Bengal, through which the direct exchange with workers (indirectly also for the audience) is made possible: What do they tell us about smells?
How do we position ourselves? What is the consequence of these debates? The audience is moved through the space – positioned in the space in different ways. It alternates between perceiving, reacting and acting: How do I as a consumer deal with the fact that there is no way out – no matter how I consume, I have the sweat and blood of exploitation on my hands, on my body, in my ear, in my nose.
Team
A project by Sandra Chatterjee with Melmun Bajarchuu, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Srabanti Bhattacherjee, Cana Bilir-Meier, Constanze Knapp, Arko Mukhaerjee, Kanishka Sarkar, Duduzile Voigts | Philosophical input: Dr. André Grahle | Scent consulting: Dr. Fabienne Hübener | Technical direction: Andi Kern | Production management: Sara Mack freispiel Kulturagentur| Assistance: Antonia Grahmann and Annika Schwederski |
Short Biographies of the Artistic Collaborators
Melmun Bajarchuu works at the boundaries of art, theory and politics as a thinker, discourse partner, curator, dramaturge and artistic production manager with a particular interest in post-structuralist, post-colonial and queerfeminist themes. Joyraj Bhattacharjee has been an internationally active actor and director for theater and film for over 20 years. He has appeared in various productions in India and France and has traveled the world for several years with the Shakespeare Theatre Company UK; Srabanti Bhattacherjee, renowned theater maker and dancer from Kolkata, India. In addition to dance and theater projects, Srabanti regularly appears in films and on television; Cana Bilir-Meier, Munich-based visual artist and art educator, editor of the poetry collection “Semra Ertan – Mein Name ist Ausländer”. Sandra Chatterjee, choreographer and researcher in the field of culture & performance and dance studies, is interested in direct interaction with the audience; co-director of CHAKKARs – Moving Interventions. Antonia Grahmann studied theater studies (B.A.) and philosophy (M.A.) in Munich; internships at the Kammerspiele and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Head of radio art program and cultural editing at the independent radio station M94.5. from October 2023: Studies dramaturgy at the Theaterakademie August Everding; Constanze Knapp has been working as a costume designer for theater, opera, film, dance and performance since 1994. She studied theater and film studies as well as philosophy in Munich and Berlin. Graduated in Experimental Costume Design “Fashion Class Vivienne Westwood” at the UDK Berlin. Arko Mukhaerjee, versatile singer and musician in the independent Indian folk music scene, sings folk songs from Europe, the African continent, Latin America and the South Asian subcontinent as well as Sufi, blues, soul and various “tribal” music forms from India and Bengal. Kanishka Sarkar is a founding member of Cactus, one of the first ‚vernacular‘ Bengali pop/rock bands, in which he played for 11 years, with over 2000 concerts and four record deals with EMI India. Kanishka lives and works in Berlin, where he produces music together with Ralf Denker. Sajib Sarkar is a percussionist from West Bengal, India, with more than 20 years of experience playing instruments like Bangla Dhol, Khol, Madol, Dhaak, Karanakara, Dhaamsa, Dupki, Kartaal and their mother instrument Tabla. Duduzile Voigts (BA from the University of Cape Town, MA in Cultural Studies from the Humboldt University in Berlin) works as a performer, choreographer and dance teacher. She has danced as a soloist for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and for international choreographers in Germany, South Africa and India.
Audience reactions | September 2023
[W]hat a performance! You have really managed to bring home to us the realities and consequences of our actions and at the same time convey them so powerfully, playfully and with so much love. What a rich cultural treasure you draw from – I absorbed your translation with all my senses. Thank you so much for that!
Sándor A Klunker
A wonderful, deep and inspiring performance by Sandra Chatterjee and friends last Sunday at the Einstein.Kultur in Munich. I will never forget the smell of the t-shirt donated by an Indian worker. What a great idea to use smells and olfactory storytelling to give a performance and activism for workers rights a new kind of sensory depth.
Fabienne Hübener, public Facebook Post
I went to see SWEAT – Smells of Labor yesterday. I went alone. I usually have a hard time walking the streets here alone in the dark. I’ve tried a couple of times to break out of my inhibitions but it’s hard. Yesterday, before I went to see the show at 8 o’clock, I decided to take a cab on the way back. After the show, however, I returned by metro. While walking through that dark road, I thought if after cooking for 250 people every day, someone could walk back home after a two hour train ride, regardless of the darkness, and knowing that unpleasant things might happen, someone who has to take risks to survive the daily struggle of life. If she can, why can’t I? I can afford the cab, so I can get into the cab, but what about those who can’t? They have to compromise!
Therefore the responsibility for our protection is our own and above all the government’s. That responsibility should be taken by countries’ governments all over the world. Not only for women but for humans. We have to work hard to comprehend at every point of the labor and sweat each one of us are squeezing out. This sense of mine has been building up gradually, but the first conscious manifestation yesterday. I didn’t do anything alone. Nothing can be done alone. The one who rejected me has also taught me to accept rejection. I can’t fight alone, but we can together. Yesterday was the best evening spent in Munich so far.
Sunjana, public Facebook Post, translated from Bengali
Yesterday I had the opportunity to see the performance piece “SWEAT – Smells of Labor” @smells.of.racism at @einsteinkultur. The artists use dance, music and olfactory elements to explore the meaning of sweat in relation to consumption, labor and neo-colonial trade relations. The project includes transnational research and involves a collective of artists, including Sandra Chatterjee with Melmun Bajarchuu, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Srabanti Bhattacherjee, Cana Bilir-Meier, Constanze Knapp, Arko Mukhaerjee, Kanishka Sarkar, Duduzile Voigts, who have been working together on this theme since 2019. I’m really impressed by how they portray workers from the textile sector in southern India as whole people and enable viewers to make a real connection to the topic. Highly recommended if you’re in Munich – check it out.
Jo Schi, public Facebook Post
