Lost is Just Another Word for Waiting to be Found is an experimental and collaborative work in progress led by South African composer and sound artist Philip Miller, and Argentinian actor, director and curator, Maricel Alvarez. The work was incubated at The Centre for the Less Good Idea and performed at The Centre as part of the For Once programme in April 2019.

Together with an ensemble of performers including Waldo Alexander, Xolisile Bongwana, Grace Magubane and Xolani Sanele Dlamini, Alvarez and Miller merge music, dance and spoken word to establish and investigate the links between the complicated histories of South Africa and Argentina. Lost is Just Another Word for Waiting to be Found introduces cultural outputs such as poetry and land art into a performing arts space in order to seek out alternative avenues of thought.

The subsequent exploration takes the form of a series of in-process conversations between artists and performers, and histories and geographies. Single notes on a violin, looped and harmonised with one another, spoken word merged with live musical performance, sharp, synchronised physical theatre and meditative pattern-making are a few of the forms that these conversations take.

Ultimately, it is the theme of loss – in all of its simplicity, banality, and philosophical complexity – that runs through the disparate modes of engagement in the performance, and emerges in a constellation of form, function and material to be further played with, tested and put to work in Lost is Just Another Word for Waiting to be Found.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PERFORMERS | Maricel Alvarez, Xolisile Bongwana, Grace Magubane, Philip Miller & Xolani Sanele Dlamini
MUSICIAN | Waldo Alexander
DIRECTORS | Philip Miller & Maricel Alvarez
VIDEO DESIGNER | Janus Fouche
SOUND ENGINEERS | Kyle Leist & Liam O Brian