Abhishek Thapar (IN/NL)

#GlobalePerspektiven

“My home at the Intersection is a performance I’ve been working towards since I started making theatre, but never found the courage to realize it – until recently. (…) I invited my family to reconstruct a performance of the house my father once built and bring our memories home.”

What access is there to one’s past and family history when they are inextricably linked to violent conflict and collective trauma? In the Punjab region of India, experiences of resettlement, displacement, violence and loss have shaped everyday life since the area was divided between Pakistan and India after the withdrawal of British colonial power in 1947. This unrest drove Abhishek Thapar and his family from their home. For “My home at the Intersection,” they returned together for the first time to the place of his childhood. He captured this return on film and combines it with objects and materials in his intimate performance. The piece is a touching and sensual confrontation with the question of home, origin, family and the meaning of history for one’s own life.

Abhishek Thapar is a theatre maker and visual artist living in Amsterdam. He studied at DAS Theatre in Amsterdam and at LISPA in London.