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375 0908 2334 

The body you are calling
is currently not available 


Idea, director, artist:
Sergey Shabohin
Idea, performer:

Igor Shugaleev 

Video artist, photographer:

Aleksandra Kononchenko

Producer:

Marina Dashuk 




︎
Premiere: 24.07.2021

Language: Belarusian with dubbing into the language of the inviting country

Duration: 60 minutes



︎ performance channel

 

︎
Tour / upcoming:

︎ follow the tour


13.07.2024
Schwindelfrei Festival 
Mannheim, Germany



Tour / past:

︎
01.06.2024
Electropark Festival
Genova, Italy


28–29.10.2023
Theater­festival SPIELART
Munich, Germany


22.06.2023
The Week Against Torture
Vilnius, Lithuania


25.05.2023
SPRING Performing Arts Festival
Utrecht, Holland


20–21.5.2023
Theatertreffen
Berlin, Germany


28–30.03.2023
NOWY TEATR
Warsaw, Poland


10.12.2022  
WOK Lab
Warsaw, Poland


15.10.2022
ACT Festival
Sofia, Bulgaria


29.09.2022
Florian teatro Festival
Pescara, Italy

12.09.2022
Placcc Festival
Budapest, Hungary

10.09.2022
Minsk&Minga Festival
Munich, Germany

07.09.2022  
Homo Novus Festival
Riga, Latvia


03.09.2022
Internationale Tanzmesse nrw
Düsseldorf, Germany
29.08.2022
Zürcher Theater Spektakel Festival
Zürich, Switzerland


09–10.07.2022
Santarcangelo Festival
Santarcangelo, Italy

23.06.2022  
Bliski Wschód Festival
Lublin, Poland
 
29.05.2022
Contemporary Art Days
Bialystok, Poland

29.04.2022
Побач. Independent Art from Belarus Festival
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden, Germany


7–19.02.2022
Nowy Teatr 
Warszawa, Poland

 
04.12.2021
International Divine Comedy Theatre Festival

Krakow Poland 

10.09.2021
Kutna Hora Performing Arts Festival
Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

05.09.2021
Generation After 5. Showcase Nowy Teatr
Warszawa, Poland 

28–30.07.2021
International contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance
Vilnius, Lithuania

︎

“... we spent roughly four hours on our knees, with foreheads to the ground, and then they took us to the courtroom …” ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ 


“... и начались новые издевательства. Заставили встать на колени, лицом в пол, руки за спиной в наручниках. Так стоять очень тяжело, кто-то падал, того били дубинкой ...” ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ 


“... затем Дмитрия отвели на нижний этаж, там снова обыскали, поставив "звездочкой". Силовик зачем-то больно вывернул кисть ... наутро там какие-то дикие вещи творились. Людей пытали ... был еще человек, которому что-то запихнули в рот, и он мычал. Был человек, который молился ...” ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ 

“... я закрыл лицо, чтобы уберечь голову. Со всех сторон били дубинками. Меня бросали на пол и велели ползти. Но я вставал, снова сбивали с ног, били берцами, кулаками, дубинками: в грудь, живот, по ногам. Раза три меня роняли, я вставал и пытался быстрее пройти это все. Под отборный мат, крики: "чмо", "чего тебе не хватает?! ", "что тебе спокойно не живется?" ...” ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ 


“... поставили всех на колени, выстроили. Мы стояли вдоль стены на улице, нам велели на коленях ползти до камеры. Я был в шортах, у меня все ноги были в крови. Мы боком на коленях ползли до камер ...” ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ 




︎
“375 0908 2334. The body you are calling is currently not available”
– the idea of performance arose from the state of protesting against violence, resisting prolonged stress, fear and overcoming feelings of guilt in which Belarusians live nowadays consciously or not. It’s a kind of invitation to conceive being detained in Belarus, to go physically through the lawlessness, illegality and outrage which tens of thousands of civilians went through – violence that continues to this day.

The performer builds a fairly simple way of communicating with the audience: identifying himself with the detainee, he simulates the situation of bodily experience at a certain stage of torture, and thus brings a faceless person out of the information field into a physical one, transforms a conditional victim from news into a living person.

“I was looking for a way to express the horror of the events that befell us – how to talk about numbness, fear and at the same time contempt for violence, about the feeling of guilt for the mass emigration of Belarusians and my own – being just an actor how can I support the protest?” – says Igor. – "And this performance was the answer: it is important to stay in context, active, conscious, not indifferent, not disparait."


375 0908 2334:

375 – telephone code of the Republic of Belarus

0908 is the date of the presidential elections, which were cynically rigged by the authorities. The spite and discontentment with the election results resulted in a revolutionary protest movement, which continues to this day.

2334 is the number of the Administrative Code article “Violation of the procedure for organizing or holding mass events”, according to which more than 40 thousand Belarusians have been convicted since August 2020.

The project was also created to collect financial assistance to victims of violence and repression in Belarus – a charitable account at the HUMANOS Foundation

The performance page is also a source of detailed project documentation.





Glossary:



375 0908 2334



+375: phone country code for Belarus;

09.08 – 13.08: days of protests post presidential elections 2020 in Belarus, during which brutal mass arrests by the militarized enforcement, severe beatings and tortures in detention facilities took place.

23.34: article of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Belarus “Violation of the procedures for organizing or holding mass events”, which became denominative for over 40 000 Belarusians.




The body you are calling is currently not available



The original word this widely known “out of reach” auto-response contains is THE PARTY (the number) – which sounds similar to THE BODY. Some time back, when I did not speak English well, I genuinely thought that the robotic voice indeed says “the body”.



This combination of digits, which visually resembles a phone number, and this auto-response are a trigger of the first days post 2020 elections in Belarus.

Mobile/internet connection was down those days, so calling friends to find out if all was well was possible very late at night or early in the morning only.

Whenever someone was out of reach, the phrase “The party you are calling is currently not available” would become full of fearsome prospects.



The Feeling of Guilt



In psychological terms, this feeling is closest to the so-called survivor guilt. This experience was first described through the work with the Holocaust survivors. To sum it up: I am luckier than the others, and at their expense. It often has consequences in the form of depression, increased addiction and self-sabotage.

As a psychologist, I have encountered strikingly similar feelings caused by very different degrees of risk and involvement. People abroad have a guilty conscience because they are not in Belarus. Those who are in Belarus but are afraid to protest, feel guilty as they do not join the protests. There are those who regularly demonstrate but have never been detained. Those who were detained but not beaten. Finally, those who were beaten, but have survived it. In each case, the norm of participation is not fulfilled and causes suffering. And it seems that to a certain extent this suffering is caused not by the guilt itself, but by the attempts to get rid of it.

Alexander Yankelevich, psychologist (source)



Evidence of violence



august2020.info – stories of people who have suffered from police brutaity during the peaceful demostrations in Belarus.

Link

Identification as
a form of empathy



Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. There is a broad range of emotional states, from a short emotional feedback all the way to full assimilation with the other person (identification).


Identification is a psychological process whereby the individual assimilates an aspect, property, or attribute of the other and is transformed wholly or partially by the model that the other provides. It is by means of a series of identifications that the personality is constituted and specified.

Identification is a partially conscious mental process. Conscious and unconscious identification helps establish a deep emotional connection, a feeling of belonging or unity with another person or a group of people. It puts one in another person’s shoes; to immerse, to be consumed by the circumstances, the space of another person, which contributes to a deep understanding...

Empathy for another person who is in pain activates the same brain areas that are responsible for our own pain. For this reason, abstract sensations (ideas about the pain of someone else on which empathy is based) are believed to be provided by the same neural circuits that are responsible for real feelings (one's own feeling of pain).

However, this overlap of brain areas for real pain and empathy is not enough to draw the conclusion that feeling pain and worrying about a suffering person is one and the same.

Thus, seeing something and imagining it is not the same. Even more, the sensations of real, physical pain and “abstract” pain, caused not by real stimuli, should differ from each other.

The theory that the feeling of empathy is based on the brain rendering its own feelings (for example, the feeling of pain) has not yet been considered proven. A solid experiment is required to demonstrate the connection between a person's own feelings and his ability for empathy. If feeling for a person suffering from pain is the same as feeling pain, then the power of empathy should be influenced by the practices of partial identity.


Sources:

Markus Rütgen, Eva-Maria Seidel, Giorgia Silani, Igor Riečanský, Allan Hummer, Christian Windischberger, Predrag Petrovic, and Claus Lamm.

Placebo analgesia and its opioidergic regulation suggest that empathy for pain is grounded in self pain // PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1511269112.




Torture



By its definition, “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Source: UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Art. 1.1.




Positions / classification


 
«Reception»

Beating and humiliation of newcomers to the detention center in order to show them their “social rank” in this institution and enforce their subordination. For example, a newcomer is chased through a line of employees who beat him with batons.



Link


«Kneeling with your forehead on the floor»


The detained is fixated on his knees, his hands shackled behind his back, his forehead on placed against the floor.



Link


«Stretching»

The most common method of pressuring a detainee or a prisoner. At some distance from the wall, with legs stretched as wide as possible, the head resting face down on the wall, hands have to be raised up, knuckles to the wall. The longer, the more effective it is.





«Face down»

The detained is placed face down on a dirty floor with his hands clasped behind his back and forced to remain in the same position for a long time. The worst case: policemen jump or tread on him. Often transportation of the detainees takes place in this position, the detainees can also be stacked one on one.



Link


Squatting

Raman Bohush – one of the spectators during the premiere – a refugee from Belarus, told about another position in which he spent his detention for 2 hours





Performance timeline:






1 performance





11.02.2021
Klub Storrady
Szczecin



2 performance





13.02.2021
Klub Storrady
Szczecin



3 performance





10.04.2021
Neue Nachbarschaft // Moabit
Berlin





4 performance





13.04.2021
Neue Nachbarschaft // Moabit
Berlin



5 performance





23.04.2021
Haus der Statistik
Berlin



6 performance





24.07.2021
Klub Storrady
Szczecin





7 performance





28.07.2021
International contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance
Vilnius




8 performance





29.07.2021
International contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance
Vilnius




9 performance





30.07.2021
International contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance
Vilnius






10 performance





05.09.2021
Generation After 5. Showcase Nowy Teatr
Warszawa




11 performance





10.09.2021
Kutna Hora Performing Arts Festival
Kutna Hora




12 performance





04.12.2021
International Divine Comedy Theatre Festival
Krakow







13 performance





17.02.2022
Nowy Teatr
Warszawa
 



14 performance





18.02.2022
Nowy Teatr
Warszawa
 



15 performance





18.02.2022
Nowy Teatr
Warszawa
 



16 performance





17.02.2022
Nebenan/Побач – independent art from Belarus
HELLERAU 

Dresden




17 performance





29.05.2022
Contemporary Art Days
Białystok Cultural Center




18 performance





23.06.2022
Bliski Wschód Festival
Cultural Center in Lublin




19 performance





29.06.2022
Malta Festival Poznań
Stara Rzeźnia




20 performance





09.07.2022
Santarcangelo Festival
Santarcangelo, Italy




21 performance





10.07.2022
Santarcangelo Festival
Santarcangelo, Italy

 



22 performance





30.08.2022
Zürcher Theater Spektakel
Rote Fabrik, Zürich




23 performance





03.09.2022
Internationale tanzmesse nrw 2022
Tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf




24 performance 





03.09.2022
Internationale tanzmesse nrw 2022
Tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf




25 performance





06.09.2022
Homo Novus Festival
Riga



26 performance





07.09.2022
Homo Novus Festival
Riga



27 performance





10.09.2022
Minsk&Minga Festival
Munich



28 performance





12.09.2022  
Placcc Festival
Budapest



29 performance





29.09.2022
Florian teatro Festival
Pescara, Italy



30 performance





15.10.2022
ACT Festival
Sofia



31 performance





10.12.2022
Warsaw Observatory of Culture
Warsaw



32 performance





28.03.2023
NOWY TEATR
Warsaw


33 performance





29.03.2023
NOWY TEATR
Warsaw


34 performance





30.03.2023
NOWY TEATR
Warsaw



35 performance





20.05.2023
Theatertreffen
Berlin



36 performance





21.05.2023
Theatertreffen
Berlin



37 performance





25.05.2023
SPRING Performing Arts Festival
Utrecht, Holland



38 performance





22.06.2023
The Week Against Torture
Vilnius



39 performance





28.10.2023
SPIELART
Einstein Kultur, Munich




40 performance





29.10.2023
SPIELART
Einstein Kultur, Munich