The chronophotography and life of the British photographer Eadweard Muybridge
A visual-motion experience of dance and physical theatre

Profound love, painful betrayal and fatal revenge

‘Human Locomotion is far from being an ordinary tale of the life of a person. It presents instead an extraordinarily captivating theatre, one abounding in metaphors, imagination and multilayered images.’
Czech Television ČT24.cz

Human Locomotion is a mix of contemporary dance, physical theatre and impressive visual art to interpret the photographic works, love relationship and legendary life of the famous British photographer Eadweard Muybridge. While Muybridge was focusing on photographic research, his wife had an affair with a drama critic. Muybridge shot and killed his wife’s lover but was acquitted on a verdict of ‘justifiable homicide’. Later, he developed his most famous photographic work capturing a horse running by using multiple cameras which represented the invention of chronophotography. He also created zoopraxiscope, a pioneering movie projector and thus prefigured the era of film. Laterna magika has much in common with Muybridge’s work, with connections in movement, photography and film linking the arts group with the versatile photographer.

A solo performance by Martin Zimmermann with elements of mime, dance, circus and tragicomedy. It is an attempt to fling the absurdities of his inner life inside out and get a grip on his bizarre thought processes. For the setting of ‘Hallo’, he has chosen a frame structure, turning it into a shop-window-type space to showcase a tragicomic figure driven by the desire to become what he appears to be. The staid and seemingly static framework turns out to be much more dynamic and fragile than one thought. The performer tries to adapt himself to the ever more out-of-control world of appearances. Objects come alive and fly around his head, magic overflows the space, obliterating the border between fiction and reality.