There’s always something better on the other side, and this belief keeps us moving. Somewhere in Europe, a landmass divided by borders of nations, languages, religions and geographical barriers, the phenomenon of migration has always existed. It is a way to survive and a way to rebel, a possibility to restart a life but also – to burn the bridges and leave everything behind. Using movement and dance, we travel through different historic periods and regions, just in order to see the patterns that have always existed, the reasons for migration and how it evolves, from nation to nation.
As humans we are always confined to given spaces. To our house, to our school, to our workplace, to our country, to the type of restaurants we can afford, to the one we love or pretend to love. It is wonderful to belong somewhere, especially if your neighbour can't afford a restaurant at all. Such things make us smile. But when the other neighbour one day comes home with a canoe on the car roof, we immediately feel miserable. And when we detect that particular smile, we definitively want a canoe. Even if we hate nature.
"The door" aims to portray the most disappointing and destructive human features through a naivistic and associative look on a group of people separated by a wall. As everything always seems more interesting on the other side, a narrow door becomes the important threshold of change. But as one is never satisfied with what one has, the search for something better becomes an endless quest. Are we free-spirited individuals, maybe even charming and creative, or are we merely chained to our behaviour like Pavlov's dogs?
- Jo Strømgren
