This work premiered in July 2023 at Berlin's Theater im Delphi, where it ran for four performances. It is a recent production by 4RUDE.

What world is reflected in these eyes?

Empty Stare is about the 'voice of the voiceless', inspired by Hans Bellmer's puppet sculptures.
The 'voiceless' are inanimate objects like stones, wood and dolls, but when we look at the inanimate, trapped in inconvenience, a gaze emerges from them like a mirror and reflects our own. It could be a part of me I didn't even know I had. Hidden behind my sociability is a voice as hard as stone.

People who live in a complex modern society, oppressed by unaccountable forces and unable to express their true voice, are they strangers to me, completely unrelated to me?
This work offers a very broad perspective where the 'voiceless voice' expressed by the dancers through Butoh spreads out like a wave, overcoming the audience's prejudices and preconceptions, changing their perspectives and releasing them into the rich real world.

Empty Stare takes its title from the facial expressions of Hans Bellmer's puppet sculptures. They stare unintentionally into the void. The gaze is not fixed, and a black hole seems to expand behind the eyes, absorbing the viewer's will as well. The eyes are empty, but they hide something.

Performance: Hikaru Inagawa, Rareș Grozea, Adina Mohr, Maco

Concept, direction, choreography, costume design: Maco
Co-choreography, light & sound design: Hikaru Inagawa

Production: 4RUDE