Production Details / Press Releases
The carabao is a swamp-type domestic water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) found in the Philippines. Water buffaloes were probably introduced to the Philippines by Malay immigrants around 300 to 200 BC. It is considered as the national animal of the Philippines. Among the long fields lying on a vast territory, covered with sun and sweat, grew the sugar canes, owned by my other grandparents. They stood still and stable on the muddy and moody earth, which got its water not from the sky, but from a man. The moist earth drowned the farmers tears, which had no time to grief and to miss, for those days, when the grief was just a word, the adults would say. There, hidden inside, the Carabao, wrapped in a thick skin, thicker than an elephant. This metaphor of an elephant’s skin should have been called after him. But he was unworthy. That is how much he has an elephant’s skin.
His eyes glazed. He appears to be like he cries constantly, just like my grandpa David. The moment I remember of my grandpa, my eyes become moist, just like the Carabao. The Carabao’s eyes are surrounded by flies, which in fact just founded a small well, a water cistern. Behind him, bounded plough, he carries it daily and makes his way through the sugar canes field, that doesn’t give him any consolation. It is no longer clear, who is carrying whom.
Cast & Credits
Concept, text, video & performance: Shiri Lukash
Singing: SoRa
Thanks for the support and consultation (from near and far) to Yotam Calo Livne and Tomer Zirkilevich.
Supported by the Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte.
ada Studio is funded by the cultural administration of the Berlin Senate.
Management / Organization: Gabi Beier
Public relations: Silke Wiethe
Technical management & lighting design: Ansgar Tappert
Thanks to the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin and the Uferstudios-Team.
ada Studio in den Uferstudios
Video Documentation
The video documentation is produced on behalf of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. The purpose of this contract is to document productions in the field of contemporary dance in Berlin. The master recordings are archived by the University Library of the Berlin University of Arts. Copies of the recordings on DVD are available for viewing exclusively in the reference collections of the following archives (at media desks in these institutions):
University Library of the Berlin University of Arts
Mediathek für Tanz und Theater des Internationalen Theaterinstituts / Mime Centrum Berlin
Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT)