Zilvia Lizardo

«La casa no existe» is a story about immigration, the meaning of home that is often fragmented and needs to be repaired. Beside me at the piano, Quentin Delaplace breathes life into Philip Glass’s Mad Rush.

Simultaneously, I place the plates on the floor, upon which is inscribed a letter, coalescing to articulate the phrase, ¨La Casa no existe¨ its entirety.

As the plates rest on the ground, I recite phrases that echo the resonance of exile, a family sundered. With each uttered sentence in the tongue of my homeland and the language of my adopted abode, I break each plate.

Eventually, I invite the audience to fracture a plate, invoking a sentence that stirs the embers of ire or inner disintegration.

With the shards scattered across the floor, I then ask the audience to piece them together, thus reconstructing the narrative anew—forged with a different semblance, entwined with different souls, and tethered by different bonds.

El sol 

arrastraba 

penas 

entre nubes

el aleteo 

irrumpía 

el plato roto

rodaba 

entre chicharras 

maníacas 

un domingo

de semana.