I have chaos on the edge of my lips

Three women.
A full-moon night.
How do we inhabit our bodies and live with the other within?
Until the ground trembles beneath our feet.

I have chaos on the edge of my lips (J’ai le chaos au bord des lèvres / ព្រលឹងនៅចុងបបូរមាត់), originally written in French and translated into English and Khmer, is a site-specific performance exploring the bridging of poetic languages and physicality, presented at the Golden (R)Age Festival, Year Zero, in Phnom Penh, in April 2025.

Writer: Eléonore Sok
Performers: Vinich Virak, Wichheca Hin, Eleonore Sok
Outside eyes: Vicky Lemaire
Translation: Vinich Virak, Niyalic Khun, Eleonore Sok
With the support of The Last Stage

Readings:
– 2024: In Between Breaths, solo exhibition, Java Creative Cafe, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
– 2025: Angkor Photo Festival, Siem Reap, Cambodia
– 2025: 34th edition of Soirées d’été en Luberon, Gargas, France

Text extract:

It’s the full moon,
The wolf surges, caresses me,
My shell crumbles,
Beneath plates and spikes,
The fracture.
My skin cracks,
I breathe, it swells, I breathe, it swells, I breathe, it…

It’s night,
Witches wander,
The dead and the living blur,
Dead cooked, dead raw.
I pass my hand over my throat,
My hand, strange and familiar,
Its touch burns.

I have chaos on the edge of my lips…
It’s a state of trembling
A seismic jolt, internal
An explosion that makes no sound
A presence within like a raptor perched on a branch
Immobile, it waits.