ÖYKÜ ÖNDER
scenography lighting design visual arts
THE FUTURE IS ANOTHER COUNTRY
Set and Lighting Design
Director Manolis Antoniou
Boulouki Theatre original creation
Collaborators: Manolis Antoniou, Marika Karlsson, Louis-Elyan Martin, & Sophie-Thérèse Stone-Richards, Öykü Önder
Costume designer: Sophie El Assad
MAI (Montreal Arts Interculturelle). Montreal, QC CA
2021
"If individualism saturates the present, securing it (but just for some), what will the future be made of? THE FUTURE IS ANOTHER COUNTRY grapples with this question via a single staple: the potato. A storehouse of nutrients and narratives, Boulouki Theatre uses this historically rich root vegetable as a bridge to territory, hospitality, adaptation, settler existence, and the limits of meaning.
Collectively conceived, the resulting work is a kaleidoscopic dinner party of sorts, where scripted and improvised conversations about the origins and preparation of food lead to dialogues about citizenship, identity, immigration, borders, xenophobia, utopia.
Inspired by the concept and practice of *philoxenia*—the love of strangers—this event channels communal warmth, togetherness, and uninhibitedness, all whilst holding up a mirror to the polis of Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal.
Boulouki Theatre’s creative universe is defined by themes of cultural difference, accessibility, audience involvement, bringing the outside inside, and the city as a site of stranger-contact."