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It’s gonna take a little work

MOHA Project with Biljana Radinoska

For the last one year and a half Olivia and Alice went looking for the motivation and drive that moves people to do what they do. They took on internships in different working fields and unfolded routines. They folded towels and made sandwiches in a small family run hotel, picked up garbage from the streets as the interns of the public cleaning department, and cleaned toilets at The Student Hotel. At the end of each internship, they give the audience the possibility to take part in this research by stepping into their shoes and joining the routines. 

In It’s gonna take a little work MOHA ends their routines where they first started them a year and a half ago, in Veem House for Performance. This time the roles are reversed as the audience steps into the routine of the artists themselves. It’s gonna take a little work is a theatrical embodied immersive experience of the many routines, secrets, accomplishments and tragedies the artists Olivia and Alice experienced in the last 7 years. 

6 December 2019

20:00

Unfolding Routines

As an artistic collective MOHA is often asked to demonstrate that its work has a measurable impact in creating long-term effects towards improving society. Over the years, Alice and Olivia often find themselves in this conflict, and became curious about what “impact” really is, what it means today, and how other people relate to this subject within their work. It is a universal matter, largely linked to the time we are living in, which demands us to become fully aware of the consequences our life-choices lead to, and therefore to take our responsibilities on this matter. 

Following this process MOHA initiated a research trajectory, called Unfolding Routines. The base of this research was to take internships in different working fields in order to compare them with our own profession hence to reflect together on our search for “impact”. By closely working with the people from these fields, Alice and Olivia address their own position in society as artists and as cleaners, cooks or receptionists, among other jobs. 

Unfolding Routines was born in Zeeheldenbuurt, the neighborhood surrounding Veem. In 2017 MOHA was invited to design a project about interaction within Veem and its environment. They spent 3 months in the neighborhood following the routines of the people, animals and objects of this area. Based on that, MOHA created the SuperRoutine card game. The game collects largely invisible details from daily life in the area; shops we pass but never enter, places we bring our children to play, a favourite bridge, the bench where we like to sit, and invites players to explore their surroundings in new ways. It is a collection of daily routines and actions which, because they got noticed, entered the realm of SuperRoutine. Inspired by this first experience MOHA went on the road to learn more about routines.

Unfolding Routines #1 – Jo van den Bosch Hotel, Den Bosch

Unfolding Routines #2 – Public Maintenance Department, Amsterdam North

Unfolding Routines #3 – Shop owners, Bijlmer Poort

Unfolding Routines #4 – Student Hotel, Groningen

Unfolding Routines #5 – Nijlanstate – Senior Flat, Leeuwarden

Unfolding Routines #6 – St Barbara cemetery, Amsterdam West

Concept and performance:
MOHA Project with Biljana Radinoska

Magician:
Bas Sturkenboom