The Land’s Heart is Greater Than Its Map
Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor
HOME is no stranger to ambitious programming and in June it welcomes a truly unique performance to not just the building but the city surrounding it. The Land’s Heart is Greater Than Its Map is an immersive experience which explores Ramzi Maqdizi’s city. Ramzi’s city is not Manchester. You will be transported to his city as you walk through a familiar one, picking out small human details that draw parallels between the two places. The performance is a journey into empathy and commonality as much as it is a theatre piece or guided tour.
Giving an audience a more personal lens through which to view issues that may seem distant and unrelatable
Ramzi’s city is one with restrictions and borders. It’s one where daily life can feel stranger than fiction. The landscape of this city is disappearing, the people who live there are silenced and face displacement discrimination and exile. This city is unique in that it is the only place to exist both on earth and in heaven.
You will be guided through the streets by a familiar sounding voice, which you hear through bluetooth headphones (these will be given to you on arrival). As a group, you’ll visit six locations where you’ll be presented with this double view of two cities. Your tour guide will transport you to a far away and unfamiliar place, while you look at the physical metropolis around you.
The Land’s Heart is Greater Than Its Map bridges geographical limitations. It brings this unfamiliar place into familiar surroundings giving an audience a more personal lens through which to view issues that may seem distant and unrelatable. It breaks temporal boundaries travelling through the history of a place as easily as the group walks down a street.
The piece is created by Ramzi alongside director Olivia Furber, with music from the Paris based Irainian group 9T Antiope. Every time this production tours to a new venue or city the piece is reinterpreted to fit into the place in a way that acknowledges the specific history of the area and feels personalised to each environment.
