The Unwritten New Normal

Live Multidisciplinary Performance

At its heart, The Unwritten New Normal questions the concept of "normality", who defines it, who benefits from it, and what lies beyond it. It reimagines time and space by pausing amid the chaos, offering room for reflection and radical imagination.

Using blank sheets of A4 paper as symbolic material, Anas choreographs a surreal space where memory, imagination, and transformation unfold. Meanwhile, Stephanie repurposes her German tax documents, symbols of order and constraint, into grey recycled costumes and textures that disrupt normative systems, suggesting alternative narratives and futures.

Paper, both personal and political, becomes the central medium, at once fragile and resilient, silent and expressive. The artists use it to build a visual and sonic world where uncertainty is not feared but embraced as a source of new meaning.

Created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Unwritten New Normal emerged from a global moment of disconnection, transforming distance into a source of creative intimacy. This collaborative digital performance is the result of a 30-day exchange between Jordanian choreographer Anas Abunahleh and German visual artist and sociological researcher Stephanie Müller.

Despite being separated by thousands of miles, the artists co-created through email, WhatsApp, shared blogs, and virtual platforms, crafting a transcontinental performance that integrates dance, textile art, sound, installation, and projection. The performance becomes a poetic expression of resilience, reinvention, and artistic solidarity during a time of uncertainty and isolation.