ELEVEN | ELEVEN

ELEVEN | ELEVEN explores the concept of Limbo, an in between state inspired by Dante’s Inferno, where souls belong neither to Paradise nor to Hell, but remain suspended in a condition of eternal incompleteness, reaching towards something that remains beyond their grasp.Starting from this image, ELEVEN | ELEVEN brings Limbo into the present, approaching it as a state of waiting, uncertainty and disorientation that arises when change feels necessary, yet the direction it might take remains unclear. What happens when we find ourselves suspended between what has been and what has not yet taken shape, unable to return but uncertain of how to move forward?
On stage, this in between space takes the form of a waiting room, where cinema seats create an environment that feels at once familiar and estranging, an anonymous place in which waiting is no longer simply an action, but gradually becomes a condition in itself. As the space loses its connection to any defined sense of time or place, another temporal dimension begins to take shape: while the world outside appears to continue moving forward, time within the waiting room stretches, repeats itself and, at moments, seems to come to a standstill.
The performance explores how this state of suspension enters the body, altering perception, presence and the relationship between two people. As time expands, repeats itself or seems to disappear altogether, distances shift and moments of proximity appear only to dissolve again, making the boundaries between presence and absence, stillness and movement, connection and isolation increasingly unstable.
The space is continuously transformed by movement, sound and light, becoming an unstable environment in which two bodies search for a sense of direction without ever being offered a clear path or a defined point of arrival. Movement becomes a way of inhabiting this uncertainty, carrying traces of waiting, resistance, encounter and transformation, while the relationship between the two bodies continually shifts between closeness and distance, action and hesitation, the impulse to remain and the necessity to move.
In this sense, ELEVEN | ELEVEN approaches Limbo not as a fixed or distant place, but as an experience that can inhabit the present, a condition suspended between stillness and movement, holding on and letting go, what remains and what is already disappearing. It is a space in which the past continues to resonate while the future has not yet revealed its form, leaving the body somewhere in between.

ELEVEN | ELEVEN premiered on 6 March 2025 at Maschinenhaus Essen, followed by performances at the First and Further Steps Festival in Krefeld, the Fisiko! Festival at Teatro degli Impavidi in Sarzana, Italy, and INSEL in Wuppertal.

With the support of Kulturamt Essen, Kulturbüro Wuppertal, Sparkassenfonds für Kunst und Kultur in Wuppertal, Sparkasse Essen and Stiftung Kalkwerke Oetelshofen.

In cooperation with : Freiraum Ben J.Riepe | Maschinenhaus Essen | Tanzstation Barmen Bahnhof

Lara Pilloni & Julia Monschau
concept | choreography | performance
Frederico Mendes Teixeira
dramaturgy | choreographic assistance
Álvaro Severino
composition | sound design
Julio Ernesto Escobar Mellado
light design | technical direction

Photo Credits sieben48 and Fabio Gianardi