Laura Stoll: dissect | attach

How do we relate to each other, how do we get attached? These questions have been of interest to psychoanalysis and more specifically attachment theory, researching how early experiences in relationships with others carve our behaviour for the rest of our lives. The performance dissect | attach  has its starting point in these notions: How can attachment behaviour be measured in a person? And in which way does the act of being asked a question make us relate to others automatically?

Being part of a series of works dealing with medical and psychological questionnaires, the performance is a contemplation on scientific methods. The recontextualization of psychological questions puts a focus on the standardization they constitute as well as the normative quality they imply. How are we measured? And how do we measure ourselves? 

At the same time, dissect | attach is an experiment conducted together with the audience. The performative quality of questioning and answering, or not answering, brings about a kind of friction. Every question can be a plea or a demand, with answers oscillating between triviality and confession. While looking for another, we might as well find we create and recreate ourselves in the process.