PRIMITIVE
Conception, stage design and direction Michel Schweizer

According to geologists and contemporary historians, Earth has now left the Holocene epoch that started about 10 000 years ago and entered into the Anthropocene, a new epoch during which humanity’s action has become the primary transformation force of the earth’s ecosystem. The traces left by our urban age, consumerist, synthetic and resorting to nuclear power that started with the industrial revolution are expected to remain thousands or even millions of years in the stratigraphic archives of the planet. For his project, Michel Schweizer led a process aimed at mobilizing creative forces, dancers and architects, in order to think about building a permanent monument displaying a sign or symbol designed to inform future generations about the emblematic and irreparable legacy. In the end, we remain quite primitive in the history of our civilization in spite of collective strategies of knowledge acquisition, network intelligence, tireless knowledge incorporation. “Primitive” is to be understood as not overcoming our thought process when the absurd spectacle of our limits in considering life lies in front of us. Thus, in order to slow down the reality consumption process that culture participates in, we must find strategies that might bring back a “raw and primitive” aspect to life and make sure that the spectacular event does not distract us from what make us part of the world. And it is because the state of reality shows a gradual disappearance of face to face that the particular community feels essential to Michel Schweizer because of its vital ability to give a lively depth as a counterpoint to the edifying future.