The Zombie is kind of unglamorous, as far as characters from cinema go. Bereft of consciousness, personality and ambition, the zombie is more of
a tragic antihero; a repulsive parody on the ideal citizen, with no other connection to lived experience than the automatic repetitions of old socialization routines.
Yet in all its dogged determination to go after the living, one cannot help but feel sympathy for this marauding sleepwalker. Considering we live in a society where the meaning of 'leefbaar' is as elusive as quicksilver, it is not difficult to see the undead as a reincarnation of the old court jester, albeit in gory state of decay, holding up a mirror to our sense of humanity and citizenship.
How empowering it must feel, therefore, to walk in its shoes. To reject all meaning and purpose of life, to stop running and start lurching, moaning and gesticulating clumsily. To stumble through the comatose suburbs and haunt its shopping malls, embracing the consumerist promise of individual liberation.
If you have ever pinched yourself to see if you would wake up from this mundane dream called life, know then that you are not alone! Join us in a melancholic revolution without leaders, and sense of direction. Join us, on Saturday the 19th of April, as we take to the streets of Overvecht, and march towards a new dawn.
Background project 'Blijf binnen. Sluit ramen en deuren':
To the artists Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum the Zombie is an ideal character for a role play about life in the suburbs. For the neighborhood Overvecht in Utrecht, they developed a project that moves between 'the making of' and 'the real thing': Together with actors from the area they are working on a remake of certain scenes from famous zombie films. The final scene is a march of a large group of Zombies towards the shopping mall. For this they are looking for as many volunteers as possible. Everybody will receive makeup and the whole event will of course be captured on video.
More information:
www.zombies.parallelports.org
With the support of:
www.inovervecht.nl
www.cascoprojects.org
www.consonni.org