Of All the People In All the World...

The British theatre company Stan's Café presents its performance installation Of All the People in All the World..., a visual construction of statistics where rice is used to represent human beings: each grain is a person.

 

Using 2,000 kg of rice, the company's actors weigh out and pile up this basic foodstuff to quantify a range of information connected with the seven NOW themes: How many people use solar energy in Barcelona? How many people do voluntary work in Spain? How many doctors are there? And soldiers? The statistics and their superimposition tell stories that can be moving, shocking or amusing, and provoke interactive thought with the audience over the four days that the performance lasts.

Elements from areas as diverse as laboratory research, the social sciences and the strict, detailed work of industrial processes overlap in this piece. As the performance develops, a sculptural landscape of constantly evolving piles of rice is constructed, often as a result of interaction with members of the audience: they are encouraged to take part by sharing their stories, interests or suggestions for new statistics as they gradually perceive, from among the huge piles of rice, the subtle links between the individual and the community, the local and the global, and oneself and everyone else.