The heartbreak of 'permanent Trespass'

Sanja Grozdanic, seen here, co-created "Permanent Trespass" which was performed on Friday at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer.

Watching “Permanent Trespass” is like standing on shifting sand. The viewer is forced to ask onto what he can cling, to whom does he look to in this shadowy, shattered world and to whom should he listen to in this dialogue of poetry in which feelings of dread and sadness linger.
 
The work, subtitled “Beirut of the Balkans & The American Century” and performed at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer, is a mystery, one that pours from the inquisitive hearts and minds of artists Sanja Grozdanic and Baseem Saad. The two come together to try capture the sense of wars in Lebanon and the former Yugoslavia and how geopolitical forces step in to impose their solutions. And how those reinventions, from the powerful U.S. and the European Union, resonate.
 
Needless to say, the topic is, sadly, forever timely.
 
The stage is set in what appears an aftermath of a recent destruction – papers and books are strew about a table, nearly wilted flowers bend their blossoms and a spotlight – like one on a power generator -- illuminate just a corner of the stage. In the chaos, two women sit on a covered couch, talking about an estate sale Grozdanic will manage. Yet the talk quickly evolves into something more – poetry that hints at its meaning, that circles in nonlinear patterns but is not landing at an open end.

The two cast themselves as eulogizers and professional mourners. Their lyrical dialogue moves about the stage as they talk at themselves in a mirror – reflecting back their words and their faces – thus amplifying it all. At one point, Saad speaks at a podium, both a eulogizer and authority. And they also speak of the arc of justice that they theorize might turn against itself, away from fairness and equality.
 
They also touch on how wars become forgotten, how money is dastardly entwined and how religion hovers over it all. And ultimately, how war is beyond senseless – it's an absurdity that words can't define.
 
“Permanent Trespass" is punctuated by films of historical footage of wars throughout the 20th and 21st century as well as video of the two walking abandoned streets and war crime museums. The images are fascinating, but it is not enough. The two leave the audience wanting and searching for meaning in what they call a moment of clarity that is later stalled by a stasis of confusion and loss.
 
This work, that stands about 45 minutes, could easily be developed further. It's also one of those pieces that can be viewed over and over as new slivers of nuance certainly would be revealed.
 
Regardless, “Permanent Trespass” ultimately gives its viewer a sense that the world is slipping into an abyss, one in which we will all be fleeing, forcing us all into a permanent trespass.