The piece is inspired by a thought-experiment Schrödinger’s Cat.

Schrödinger wrote:

A cat is isolated in a steel chamber, along with the following device: in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.

In the experiment, the state of the cat, which is kept in a box with no opening, can only be known as a combination of possible rest states according to a theory of quantum mechanics, and the result will only be determined by an attendance of an observer. This is just like our daily life. We can say we all live in an individual ‘box’ with personality which itself doesn’t have any definition in it. For the first time when such a box connected to other ‘boxes’ forming a society, the other person will name the contents of the ‘box’ or relationships with others in a name of definition or recognition.  A Cat in a Box explores one’s relationship between him and others focusing in such an aspect in co-operation with a Japanese Artist Takahiro Suzuki with his ‘IKIRO’ project.

Concept / Choreography: Kojiro Imada

Concept / Stage / Performance: Takahiro Suzuki

Choreographic Assistant: Osamu Jareo

Dance / Choreography: Yannick Badier, Roberto Morales, Andrea Schifer, Takahiro Suzuki

Music: Amon Tobin u.a.

Light Design: Fabian Bleisch

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