Ixchel Mendoza Hernández: A Scenario Of A System Off

The new performance “A Scenario Of A System Off” by Mexican artist Ixchel Mendoza Hernández is an invitation to engage with our perception. In the gaps between memory and imagination, the piece examines how everyday gestures, words and environments change when systems of language and categorization falter. Through repeating loops of movement, text, and sound, ordinary situations—like a simple “I sat here”—transform into puzzles, contradictions, and poetic detours. “A Scenario Of A System Off” premieres shortly before Christmas at the Radialsystem.

Three dancers move on stage in dialogue with “invisible” beings. They form a changing interplay of bodies, voices and soundscapes. Fabric panels create different spaces and become permeable covers that capture fleeting light or projections.

The performance deals with imagination as a political and philosophical tool: Instead of a linear narrative, the performance unfolds as a dynamic system of different levels of perception and possibilities. A Scenario Of A System Off takes audiences into a world where meaning is unfixed and explores how repetition, transformation and associative perception can open up new ways of understanding, imagining and inhabiting the world.