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fatigue: A hypnotic journey through exhaustion and desire to slow down
By: Memouna Aharram
Hungarian artist Viktor Szeri brings his award-winning solo fatigue to SPRING Performing Arts Festival. It is an intimate, multidisciplinary performance about burnout, slowing down and the pressures of a world that is always “on”. In an in-depth conversation, Szeri shares how personal exhaustion transformed into a universal experience and why his performance invites you to participate rather than watch.
Burnout as a creative spark
fatigue arose in 2022, in the midst of the aftermath of the pandemic. ‘I was mentally and physically spent,’ Szeri explains. “After an intensive group performance (Outsiders), I got a new grant, but I had no idea what I wanted to make. Until I sat in Athens on my 30th birthday, with a beer in hand, and thought: what if I just turn my exhaustion into art?”
The performance started as a joke: ‘I told a friend: I’ll just stand on an empty stage, slow-motion dancing to slowed-down reggaeton, and I’ll call that art.’ But that provocation turned out to be more serious than expected. “It became an investigation into how it feels to be exhausted in a society that is always going on. Without my conscious thought, it also reflected on the political situation in Hungary – where we never talk about burnout, while many of us are dealing with it.
A hypnotic installation of body and technology
fatigue is more than dance. Szeri combines movement with video, light and a minimalist soundscape by collaborator András Monár. ‘I built the whole structure in an Excel sheet,’ he laughs. “How long does each scene last? When does the video come? It had to be exactly right, because I wanted the audience to slowly fall into a trance.”
That trance is both confrontational and liberating. “First I look straight at the audience, as if asking, ‘Do you see me?’ Then I start moving – slowly, as if every muscle hurts. It’s an invitation to join in that slowdown. Some people get irritated (“Do something!”), others almost fall asleep. A Spanish man once said, “This was the best powernap of my life.””
No therapy, but intercourse
Szeri stresses that fatigue is not a therapeutic project. “I used to make art as self-help, now it’s about shared experience. I am not there to read my diary, but to create a space where exhaustion is allowed to exist. Without judgement.”
That space will continue in the connecting clubnight at EKKO, where Monár will play a DJ set. “During a gig in Cyprus, we made 100 people dance wildly at first, then slowly transition to the music of fatigue. At one point they all moved in slow motion, without us asking. As if they collectively decided: now take a break.”
fatigue plays on 23 May at 22:30 at EKKO (walk-in from 21:45 with DJ András). After the performance: Club EKKO until 4:00. Tickets: €16-€19 via www.springutrecht.nl.