FTHo

Ustek and Huttner have been investigating the conditions of knowledge in non-ordinary realities, taking absolute boundaries of time, space and temperature into account. The play merged into investigations of notions such as travel, movement, time, volume while imagining zero Kelvin (absolute zero) as a point of reference and referring it back to their respective creative practices. This text, carrying the same title as the event, is an outcome of the discussions the two have undertaken over a year on theorems of abstract mathematics, quantum mechanics, subjectivity, temporality, timelessness and knowledge.

This piece is the first of a three-part contribution, and is composed at 122K. In October, Huttner and Ustek will take a trip to Minnesota, U.S., to visit Robert Ettinger, the father of cryogenics and founder of Cryogenics Institute, Michigan. This trip will form the core of the two following 'cold' texts.

Act 1 - At the Flat Time House 2

The door everyone has been staring at with anticipation opens and a small hurricane of cold air hits the audience. Two figures in space suits covered by layers of strange ice crystals enter. The high-tech space suits emit strange white smoke and as the two figures move, tiny chips of ice come off their suits and burn small holes in the carpet with a low 'pffissching' noise. Everyone in the audience is so still that you can reach out and poke at the silence. The strange astronauts take off their helmets revealing the head of a man and a woman. They both look tired. But more than anything, they smile with great satisfaction and joy. The room is filled with applause and they hug.

But their ultra-cold space suits stick to each other. They are asked to put their helmets back on and the suits are sprayed with a special liquid that make them return to room temperature. The two become unstuck. As soon as they get out of their suits they are given warm blankets to wrap their bodies in. People from the press ask questions and cameras flash.
"What do you have to say to the young students at home in Turkey?" a man with a big moustache asks.
"Well, they have to find their own way, keep reflecting on the present and continue to learn from art as well as from science," she says.
"We from Berlin," another moustache-clad man says, "would like to extend a special thank to you both." The two heroes bow their heads stiffly as if the man was Japanese rather than German.
"What does Berlin have to do with anything?" a fat middle-aged woman in the audience hollers, waving her cigarette.
"They both lived in Berlin, everyone knows that," the German moustache says.

For the full transcript click here.

For more on Per Huttner and Fatos Ustek click here.