Collaboration with opera singer Nina Guo

 

'If Only' first existed as a sung performance reviving the mythical stories and medical knowledge about the legendary mandragora plant - a human-like plant that screams when it is pulled out of the ground. The performance combined polyphonic singing, theatrical storytelling and spatially staged objects to create an immersive, magical experience.

To allow the performance a life past its premier in September 2024, we reworked the documentation into a 10' short film. The piece now exists in a modular form, as a film, as a hand embroidered tent and as songs that are recorded or can be be sung live again.

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The film takes a contemporary spin on the thousand-year-old story of the mandragora, which tells of a plant in human form that screams when it is pulled out of the ground. As much as the magical mandragora is a product of the human imagination, the plant it describes is rooted in the physical world; in ancient Greece the plant was used as a sleeping pill and as a narcotic during operations, to induce labour and abortions. The stories that began to surround the enigmatic human plant gradually evolved into a fairy tale and later a belief system known as ‘mandragora belief’. This belief fostered a flourishing black market, became the cause of numerous witch trials and was most widespread in places where the plant itself could not grow: North of the Alps.

 

'If Only' embeds the history of the mandrake in a contemporary context and use it as a means to understand how we humans find our way in a world that is more mysterious than our minds can comprehend. It is a sung performance, a homage to a magical plant and a homage to our deepest dreams, wishes and fears.

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2025

9' 51''

performance, singing, hand embroidery, embroidery, fabric

 

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Supported by:

Aargauer Kuratorium

Irene Stiftung

Wali Dad Stiftung 

Anne-Marie Schindler Stiftung

Elisabeth Weber Stiftung

Gwärtler Stiftung

Musikschule Zürich Oberland

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Exhibition:
Kunstlokal Festival, Ritterhaus Bubikon, 2024

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choir director: Julia Gloor

organ: Dina Sommerhalder

film director: Alcaeus Spyrou

film assistance: Arianna Cavalensi

colour grading: Mayis Rukel

light / audio: Jethro Cooke

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actress: Vivianne Mösli

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Solo Singers: 

Katharina Heissenhuber

Stephanie Ritz

Thomas Nussbaumer

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Children's Choir: Flausenkids

Emina Arik

Sibel Arik

Jan Christen

Anna de Jesus Silva

Anika Gebert

Larina Geiger

Fynn Mischler

Laslo Muschter

Mael Müller

Nora Pauly

Jakob Puls

Valentina Riesenfeld

Julian Roduit

Noemi Ryffel

Ava Welti

Jan Wirz

Raffael Vollenweider

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Teenager Choir: der Brüll

Marie Ammann

Irina Bärtschi

Luana Casucci

Leia Cerutti

Diana Dyatlova

Vila Golcar

Alexandra Heierle

Aiden Kurak

Polina Koval

Annika Meier

Sinja Morgenthaler

Julia Müller

Leonie Müller

Mara Pauly

Nicolas Schuster

Anna-Louisa Stadelmann

Elena Weber

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Project Choir adults:

Erika Gedeon

Lili Golcar

Carola Herwick

Reto Linsi

Kura Müller

Muran Müller

Susann Müller

Thomas Nussbaumer

Annaletta Ruepp

Stefan Schmidhofer

Marco Wagner

Franziska Wehrli

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The research to this performance has been published by Onomatopee as book titled 'Three Becomes Two Becomes One Becomes None'

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​photos side: stills If Only

photos below: Eugenia Mashenko, Kunstlokal Festival (2024)