I met you once, I loved you twice

I met you once, I loved you twice is a visual performance inspired by the myth of the spherical humans from Plato's Symposium. According to this story, humans originally had four arms, four legs, and two heads, but Zeus split them in half with an axe. Since then, people have spent their lives searching for their lost other half.

This performance will explore the overlap between falling in love and psychosis, focusing on the desire for unity and the loss of one’s own position. From the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis, this is a fascinating comparison: the boundaries blur between self and other, reality and imagination, thought and being.

Using 3D animations, sculptures, and projections, Judith Engelen creates a visual language in which two former lovers meet again after a long time. In this encounter, the challenges of psychosis are laid bare.

During her residency at KAOS and workspacebrussels, she is beginning her preliminary research for I met you once, I loved you twice within a psychiatric context.