Radikale

The mood is catastrophic: Euro crisis, war in Afghanistan, public transport workers on strike – global disruptions resonate locally, the private becomes entangled with the political until it becomes impossible to tell them apart. This results in a diffuse and collective uneasiness, a highly combustible mix, boiling inside a pressure cooker. Syha zooms in on crowds at bus stops or in subways, in open-plan offices or pedestrian zones, and then she picks individual voices from the crowd. Overheard pieces of dialogue, or inner monologues which usually remain unheard, tell of failed life plans, pressure to perform, and pent-up aggression, of banal quotidian worries and naked existential fears. Shifting between choric sequences and quiet solos, between moments full of tragic and abysmal comedy, Radicals becomes condensed into the “symphony of a metropolis”, showing us a dysfunctional society in which multiple time bombs are ticking.