Layton Lachman, an artist from the United States currently based in Berlin, creates performances that channel experimental physical practices into immersive and sensorially complex worlds. Working across a variety of performance contexts, their choreographies incorporate voice, spatialised sound, video, and an intense physicality which, when combined, often stand out for their surreal and dreamlike qualities.

From 9 to 21 September, Lachman was in artistic residency at O Espaço do Tempo with Mirage, a project that explores dance on stage as a social space within an increasingly alienated society that has become disconnected from itself. The central question underpinning this research, which is deeply rooted in the idea of utopia, is: how do we get out? How can we renounce the current social framework, which demands our participation in violent structures of conformity and inequality, built on exploitation and extraction?

The project was hosted as part of FELD/LAB, an initiative supported by the Goethe-Institut in Portugal, in partnership with Coffeepaste.

Video: Carolina Lecoq