MUTUS LIBER

Handa Gote Research & Development

Czech Republic

---

Ladders to heaven, flashes of lightning, the sound of horns and clarions, and a wheezing of a pair of bellows. The hurdy-gurdy and ventilators are heftily cranked up to extract metal. Things are mixed and fire is played with – because time, after all, is gold. Handa Gote’s laboratory is based on the book Mutus Liber – an alchemist’s tome dating back to 1677 – and is a kind of post-dramatic medieval marketplace featuring archers, knights, maids and beekeepers, who amuse themselves with all manner of wondrous things. This mosaic made up of secret society rituals, images of saints, and processions is a reconstruction of alchemy – a homage to its spiritual practice and, at the same time, a carnal, ironic voyage to the philosopher’s stone somewhere between virtual and physical reality.

Handa Gote is the Japanese word for “soldering iron” and refers to how the group combines theatrical and non-theatrical methods. As far as the latter is concerned, they are inspired above all by science and technology. They regard their pieces as “post-dramatic entertainment theatre”. The group was already a guest at UNIDRAM in 2008 and 2009.