On common ground III

On cultivation "To cultivate is to select, give priority to a certain life form, value it higher than an other. Thus to protect this life form means to exclude others, which form a (potential) threat to its existence. Excluding means often eliminating, so then the choice is between killing and having ‘comfortable’ space to grow. Besides selecting a life form we need to protect it against the sun and other weather conditions, elements of the natural environment which could cause disasters, sub-cultivate other life forms to support the cultivated life form and sometimes we need to protect it against its own behaviour. Culture is very much about growing human beings in a certain circumstance. Because on earth there are a lot of different circumstances, cultures differ from each other. Circumstances change so therefore cultures need to develop. If the circumstances don’t change so much it is very likely the culture doesn’t change much either. To be able to cultivate one needs to manipulate the (natural) environment. The environment determines the cultural elements. (How this culture is manipulating its environment.) Not only the physical elements are determined by the environment; The way we think, the language we developed, the logic we understand, the social communication we developed, etc. all is being influenced by our environment. Since the natural environment’s influence was very strong, when the bases of a lot of cultures were laid, most basic elements of culture still can be traced back to this natural environment. However, when cultures develop, the original natural environments’ influence reduces most commonly. This means that increasingly the products of the culture itself will start to determine its environment of which it is determined by. The result is an ongoing disconnection with the natural environment. Religions and other systems of believe originally helped human beings grow better by reducing stress which comes from the difficult question why we lay the priority on cultivating human beings? (Why am I here) What gives me the right to select life forms? (Who am I?) What are the rules of selecting? (What am I doing here?) If we are more important what is our responsibility? The answers on these questions originally included a lot of respect for the natural environment. These days the ground we are standing on is very much a product of our own culture (concrete as the thing being concrete), therefore the answers to these basic questions start to be disconnected from the original natural environment. The answers for existence are more and more defined within the culture itself and thus less and less related to the natural environment." Multidisciplinary performance based on the culture–nature breach. Performed at City Theatre Arnhem June 2001. concept & choreography: Armand van den Hamer dance: Mioko Yoshihara Rumiko Otsuka Thorunn Bjarnadottir music: Joris Ruysenaars costumes: Hue Tran