The INVASION Please, dont panic!

They come in pink

"Authentic madness."
Fiesta cultura magazine, 2008

"... addictive interactions ..." Delo, Ljubljana, 2009 "Simple and ingenious." Veerka, Brest, 2010 Better then Avatar in 3D! Sjaellandske Medier, Vordingborg, 2011

WHAT IS IT?
The INVASION project is not a typical theatre show. It is a game, a movement, a pink virus spreading around the world and inviting everybody to join in. An interplanetary expedition of immigrants from outer space has landed on our planet. Their UFO crashed into a building which they have squatted and turned into an alien asylum. Members of the expedition belong to different alien species, but as a reaction to the Earth atmosphere they all gained a new protective color, they turned completely pink so that people would not take them too seriously. They are exploring the city, establishing contact with the human race, teaching us their habits and learning from us, trying to exchange pink stones for money, hitchhiking the city bus, stealing a car from an unsuspecting driver, swimming in city fountains, looking for jobs, friends and lovers.

WHAT IS OUR MISSION?

The goal of the performance is to establish an interplanetary dialog. To confront the audience and the by passers with surprising creatures from outer space, let them react and use their reactions for creating a story. While the newcomers are trying to deal with the surrounding objects (garbage bins, traffic signs, cars, benches) the audience will be able to understand the basic mechanisms of their social rules and forms of communication. Aliens posses a special kind of sensibility, everything is new to them. They react in their own way to simple everyday things we have all taken for granted a long time ago. This is especially evident in the unexpected way they interact with people. With the use of improvisation and other theatrical methods the performers open a true and unpredictable dialogue with the public. The border between the performers and the observers is temporarily blurred. The INVASION is a constant work in progress. Since its beginning we have cooperated with more than 50 established festivals and cultural organizers in 23 countries (La Strada Graz, Austria; Hi!Seoul Festival Korea; Belaya Vezha Festival Minsk, Belorus; Aurillac Festival - France; Stockholm Culture Festival - Sweden, Mirabilia Festival - Fossano, Italy; PIT Festival - Porsgrunn, Norway; Jelenia Gora Festival - Poland; Waves Festival - Vordingborg, Denmark; Arkhangelsk International Street Theater Festival - Russia Merchant City Festival - Glasgow, Scotland, etc.) breeding new alien characters, exploring new sites and constantly discovering new situations in which they might appear.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The project can be presented in very different scales, from a single performance or walking act to a whole week INVASION, with or without the Alien asylum installation, with the possibility to use local workshop participants, also the number of the aliens can vary depending on the situation. In case of more than 3 performances in the same city each new action is different and presents a new chapter in the story of the aliens. We use a site-specific approach, perform outdoor and indoor interventions (in parks, bars, shops, on buses, in theatre foyers, museums and other ambiental spaces), our actions can be announced or unannounced (aliens appearing unexpectedly around the town surprising the by-passers, visiting city attractions, getting jobs and trying to assimilate, attending other festival events etc). The basic structure of the performance: Aliens gradually appearing on the balconies, windows and roof of the building the Alien asylum. In case the building for the installation can not be arranged, they appear from different unexpected places (balconies, roofs of nearby buildings, bars, shops etc.) Aliens exiting the building and establishing contact with the audience inviting them to play and interact. The aliens move on in order to explore the city. They form a parade with people following them. On the way they make site specific compositions, explore shops and cafes, find themselves in unexpected situations and meet more pink aliens that join them. At the end of the show the alien parade comes to a traffic road where to the surprise of the public aliens borrow a car and drive away.

In active cooperation with the inviting organizer we also develop ideas and actions outside of our usual frame (aliens giving interviews or appearing on a local TV show, aliens getting exhibited in the city ZOO, aliens inviting visitors to enter the Alien asylum and join them for an alien tea party etc).

THE ALIEN ASYLUM INSTALATION

A whole building is transformed into an alien asylum, it reacts to sounds, touch and movement (voices and touches of the by-passers are transformed into alien sounds, movement triggers waves of fog, radio signals are being transmitted and a strange pink liquid is dripping out of the silver tubes). The building attracts attention and promotes the festival; people interact with it and obtain info on the arrival of the aliens from the warning signs on the doors. It becomes a focal point in the neighbourhood. The pink virus also spreads to the streets around the building. The site specific installation should appear in the city at least one day before the aliens and it can stay there for the whole period of the INVASION. As the beginning sequence of the performance the aliens are appearing on the windows and balconies, which gives the project a spectacular dimension and allows a larger audience to see the aliens before they exit the building and spread among the people to interact and establish "first contact" with the human race.

THE WORKSHOPS
Participants can discover their inner alien through workshops of interactive physical theater (based on a unique method combining principles of group awareness, biomechanics, improvisation and Butoh). After the workshops the participants are involved in the actions of the aliens. Mixed with the audience they unexpectedly transform into their "alien" characters as an additional surprise that further blurs the boundaries between performers and audience. In case of 3 or more days workshop the participants are given the opportunity to develop their own costumes, become pink and join The INVASION even more intensively.

The L JUD group

WHO ARE WE? The LJUD group was established in 2006, with a goal to bring high quality contemporary art to a wider audience. It consists of directors, performers and visual artists from across Europe dedicated to exploring the possibilities of artistic expression in public space and new theatrical forms based on interaction rather than presentation. While developing The INVASION project, several outstanding young anthropologists joined our team and they are still significantly contributing to our contents and working methods. In the last two years we have enriched our field of work by developing original approaches to educational, social and environmental projects which are supported by the EU. We are as well leaders and conceptual authors of a European project for new artistic mobility named H.O.M.E. Houses for Open Mobility Exchange. Our activities are cofinanced by the European Commission Directorate of Culture, the IN SITU network, the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Ljubljana and others.

CONTACT US! www.ljud.si kudljud@gmail.com KUD Ljud, Slovenska 28., SI - 1000 Ljubljana Tel: +386 (0) 31 533 979 Alina Feldman (group manager)