The site-specific lecture-performance “Heimat ist Saudade” integrates Nathalie S. Fari’s master’s thesis on the topic of migration entitled “Von der Suche nach Verortung” (En: From the Search of Locational Identity). It was developed for a specific room of a former soldier’s house in Potsdam, Germany (where the Potsdam Conference was held during the Soviet occupation from July 17th to August 2nd in1945) by creating a sort of “performative loop” based on a fictional letter:

Letter 4: Saudade is Homeland

From: Deceased grandpa from East Prussia

Date: October 22, 2008, Potsdam, Berlin

My dear grandchild, I have learned a very important thing: the city of my birth is barely larger than a suitcase! That does not strike me as astonishing. I certainly know that besides the large metropolises such as Berlin, New York, São Paulo, there are hundreds of others, some so small and cramped they can barely be seen on the map. I can also no longer find my city on the map. The one thing I still remember is that it was last seen in 1945 by a Brazilian soldier. At the time he gave a lecture on his recent impressions at the Potsdam Conference at Cecilienhof. But nobody listened—because of his Prussian uniform. The great people are like that. Unless I’m mistaken, he will repeat his lecture this year in a house at Lindenstrasse 15, also in Potsdam. You should go there. He will probably wear a different uniform this time. I hope you can get there on time because I need your support—Land of the dark forests and crystal-clear lakes, across broad fields go light miracles. You know how I miss my city. I think about it just about all the time. Do you still remember how you recited a poem for me in your garden full of palms? I barely understood it, but it is important for you to send it to the Brazilian soldier. Surely you have stamps left from your valuable collection. Yet I’m afraid he will not exactly understand, but only he has the key. It has already been seventy-one years since I fled my city. It is sad to forget a city. Not everyone has a city. It is also difficult to bring oneself to travel once more when one only has a decomposing map. Maybe the Brazilian soldier can give you more information during the lecture. He always thought I would be able to handle this constriction. But it’s slowly driving me insane. To only be able to see corners and edges is almost the same as drifting around the world in a container, without finding anything in there, where nobody was anyway: in the homeland. But you could speak to the great people so that they could give me back my old refugee passport. With it I might be able to see my city once more.

Event Dates: 22.-24.10.2008, Localize Heimatfestival, Potsdam, GE

Credits: Concept and Performance: Nathalie S. Fari