Gootopia – The Treatment

In Gootopia - The Treatment, the performance Gootopia, which premiered in 2021 at Tanzquartier Wien, finds a logical continuation. Central motifs such as the exploration of connections (between humans as well as between humans and non-human actors), the shifting of bodily boundaries, and the immersion in slime are expanded to include the audience. The visitors are given the opportunity to come into physical contact with different mucous substances. The performers work independently with slime and subsequently also act as "guides" to stations in the space where treatments for the audience take place.

The slime is material and performer at the same time, it performs with, on, in and between bodies. People and slime touch each other, network, mix, form alliances. New connections are constantly formed, the body boundaries become fluid and associative spaces for other, slimy, utopian forms of life are opened up. Doris Uhlich is concerned that our bodies are in constant connection and exchange with other bodies and life forms. An ambivalent field between horror and fascination, empathy and disgust emerges, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the liveliness of material processes.

„The human organism is neither wholly human, as a person, nor just an organism. It is an abstract machine, radically immanent, which captures, transforms and produces interconnections.“ (Rosi Braidotti)