Moving Narrative Amber Docters van Leeuwen

On 20 May 2022, Amber Docters van Leeuwen unexpectedly received a message from her biological father, a moment that changed her life forever. A few months later, she met him for the first time in Seoul. During that meeting, it became clear that her adoption is brutally central to his life. What began as a meeting with someone from her past grew into the realization: he may be a stranger to her, but to her 7-year-old daughter Lou, he could be a grandfather.

With Moving Narrative, Amber continues her research into international adoption, this time from the perspective of three generations: herself, her father, and her daughter. What happens to a family bond when one generation has been torn out of it? Together with Lou, Amber traveled to Seoul to visit places from his past with her biological father that are meaningful to his life and her adoption. That journey forms the basis for a layered narrative in which three generations embody the rupture and the search for connection from their own perspectives.

In this solo performance, Amber builds an immersive soundscape of sixteen speakers around the audience. Here, the voice recordings and field recordings from Seoul come together, surrounded by a musical composition.

The audience finds themselves in the middle of this sound installation and is taken along in the search for connection between Amber, her father, and her daughter Lou. Lou's voice and magical imagination form the heart of the story and open up a poetic space where fact and fiction merge.

Moving Narrative is a sensory experience about origin, identity, and the often intangible traces of family.