life on earth is a collaborative project of cabula6, an international performance group under the artistic direction of claudia heu and jeremy xido.

it all began in santiago de chile with the idea to witness daily life in public space, to capture the perception of common people and reveal the modes and impact of traveling. traveling can stand for a lot of things, such as moving from place a to b, a group of friends on vacation, migrants forced to give up familiar territory, an audience bodily and mentally following a piece. 3 months on earth was the first phase of life on earth and searched pathways that each of us take to arrive to this very moment where we are right now, questioned conditions that lead to any given moment, revealed connections that bind all of us who share intersecting worlds. how did I get here? how did those surrounding me get here?

the travel from santiago de chile ended at the outskirts of vienna at a place called macondo, named after marquez writing in hundred years of solitude. macondo became a place for shelter and home back in the 70ies when a large number of chilenian refugees fled under pinochet. todays' macondo, however, is an ever changing and growing settlement where successive waves of political refugees arrive from the current headlining wars from around the globe. hidden behind trees, a yellow corrugated iron fence and walmart like parking lots there lies a very different and unexpected world, somehow out of place, misplaced geographically, miraculously connected to the outside world. 3 months on earth recorded life stories of people based in macondo, of audience and bystanders, invited or by accident drawn to the ongoing process. the aim was to bridge between cultural entities and put on display, on one hand the diversion a memory based landscape can hold, on the other the connecting dots laid out all over the inner and outer landscape.

3 months on earth was presented to the public on may 15 and 16, 2007 at tqw tanzquartier wien and macondo as a performative gathering of visitors and inhabitants. a group of children put their own vision, memory and internal censorship on film and presented the results in an out door exhibition. our volunteers used simple one-way cameras and were asked to document their individual life in macondo, to capture all that seemed precious and important. some of the photos are on display here.

the collaboration with residents of macondo resumed in 2009 with a new agenda and range of artistic work. the team of cabula6 was granted a refugee apartment by the republic of austria and lived in macondo for six months. a shipping container, set up on the edge of a soccer field provided a meeting point for a variety of invited artists, the team and residents of macondo. children created their own garden and designed the space according to their means and vision.

life on earth was named collectiv of the year (category important ensembles) by the german dance magazine ballettanz (jahrbuch 09) and received an "outstanding artistic award" - interkultureller dialog 2010 by the austrian federal ministry for education, arts and culture (bm:ukk).

concept cabula6
team amanda piña, amrei plattner, andrea seewald, carlos rojas, claudia heu, daniel zimmer- mann, fabrizio de pasquale, jens classen, jeremy xido, jorge rojas, josephine dorado, laura simms, laurent ziegler, mamadou diabate, manuela stattin, mani obeya, markus schleinzer, marlies pucher, michael pinsky, michel jiminez, nino villalobos, paulo alvarado, petra herglotz, ramon villalobos, roland schmidt, zoe knights and guests