Weber works with a team of dancers whose aim is to perform a ritualistic set of moves in order to seduce alien forms to come down into the room to mate with them. Using hot, sweaty, and coquettish moves, the bodies celebrate their own existence and other unidentified forms of life, glitching the traditional sci-fi structure, which is typically made up of fear and threat of the unknown. Weber’s crew, instead, seek romantic, sensual liaisons with these characters that exist outside of our solar system. The movements they evoke are fast, cut-up forms that use transmission techniques and signals to invite the unknown beings into the room. There is a sense of hope for the optimistic onlooker and hopelessness in the sceptic’s eye, that they emulate inside their work. Are they using the right coding to succeed in their performative gestures? Are there bodies suggestive and attractive enough to alien life forms? Is there anything even out there to see their thrusting eyes held up to the sky with determination and desire?

Their coded transmissions that spike the somatic movements of lust are based on research on the painter David Huggins, who claims that at the age of seventeen in rural Georgia, USA, he lost his virginity to a female-formed alien in 1961. Over the years, Huggins has claimed to have had over a hundred experiences with extraterrestrials, which are illustrated in his oil paintings. He also believes he has had over fifty hybrid alien children and recognises his lifelong sexual enslavement as a beautiful gift.

EXTRA_visit, 2021
Performance
Music/Sound Design: Kinga Ötvös
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned and produced by the Athens Biennale