Diving the frame » inspiring stuff

snippets #4 – in Paris

Suzon — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:22:28 +0000

In Paris, I went of course to see ’Leviathan’ by Anish Kapoor at le Grand-Palais. It was such a short exhibition for such a huge and impactful work. I was really lucky. I went at the end of the day around 6pm. there was a gorup of people inside and it was hot, so i went to have a drink and look at the installation from outside and how it was fitting inside the glasshouse of the Grand-Palais. I had no idea of the time, but wanted to watch it once more. That’s when I filmed, the shadows of the glasshouse were making a fantastic structure inside the structure. People left, it was about to close and I was alone! wow! Feeling of being in between black holes, in something like a huge organism…not possible to describe, something to feel.
I also went to the WATER Pavilion (metro Javel! the irony is: Eau de Javel=bleach) – see photos on flickr there is a permanent exhibition about Paris water and its infrastructure, a library and a workshop space for kids, and there was a temporary exhibition about WATER+ART+DESIGN.

snippets #3 – in Brussels

Suzon — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:52:20 +0000

In Brussels, I went to visit the Boghossian House/Villa Empain which had a strong exhibit ‘Of women’s modesty and anger’.
00:00 – ‘Aquarium aux danseuses’ by Pierrick Sorrin
00:15 - ‘Les Danseuses, model I, II, III’ by Atelier Oi

I also went to the last day of ‘America is also our history’ ‘L’amerique, c’est aussi notre histoire’ at Tours et Taxis.
00:35 – ‘Peeping Tom’ by Thomas Israel
00:58 – display showing video passing like rotating press with several long screens in the space, which had each another projection, giving a rythm of things passing fast.

snippets #1 – Prague Quadrennial of Extended Scenography

Suzon — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:45:43 +0000

00:00 ‘Birthday Suits’ by Misha Le Jen, Russia – Extreme Costume
00:29 ‘Missing’ – Best Curatorial Concept of an Exhibit: Hungary – conceptual unity immersing visitors in an enigmatic, metaphorical world, focusing on the plight of the artist in contemporary society.
01:25 students models integrating video screens
01:53 Roman and Alexandra water waves modulating with different sound frequencies
02:25 ‘wipers’
02:35 student work, Serbia
02:52 staircases at the boxes (Intersections exhibition)
In the Boxes of Intersections – Intimacy and Spectacle: Intimacy and Spectacle is a special international project of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2011 that explores space as creator of the audience/viewer and visual art/theatre relationship and performance as an important element of different art and cultural disciplines.
03:39 – 3 heads
05:23 – alone, in a dark box ….designed by Romeo Castellucci
06:29 – Australian students work – a wheel…

Oskar Schlemmer – metal & stick dances

Suzon — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:03:59 +0000

This is for me, amongst the most avant-garde performances still today. (this post has been deleted by a hacker, but am reposting for reference!)
Schlemmer was a lecturer at the Bauhaus of the new stage.

I just saw in Prague Quadrennial, some students interprating Triadic Ballet costumes, made with contemporary materials. [from PQ program: RGB Triadic Ballet in the twenty-first century. Almost a century ago Oskar Schlemmer made a Bauhaus ballet with costumes made of wire, cardboard, and paper maché, using primary shapes and colors. Can men be transformed into geometric shapes without losing their humanness? The performance was presented by students of the Theaterschool Amsterdam (Netherlands). The students scenography were monitored by Peter de Kimpe.]

Adrien Monot – juggling with light

Suzon — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:22:33 +0000

Adrien Monot is also developing a software called eMotion a tool for creating interactive motions of objects for live visual performances.

moving surface

Suzon — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:23:56 +0000

“Muto” by Blu
was shown during SEAM symposium by Claudia Paren at the end of her presentation “Dancing Facades”.

Greenaway & his collaborator Istvan Horkay

Suzon — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:14:28 +0000

Peter Greenaway came to GOMA cinematheque in the context of the Brisbane Festival. It was an entire event with a lead up with projections of early short movies and some long feature films (see previous post ‘Water Wrackets’). I was happy to watch the 2 hour-film condensed version of Tulse Luper before the actual VJ performance. I walked out feeling that it would be greater to see this dense layered work on DVDs or/and as a television series with possibilities of pausing and digesting the material in our own rhythm! As the visual quality was as sophisticated (worked with his collaborator Istvan Horkay) as the narrative. Then, I saw the VJ performance, pretty wild, fast paced and very loud, with 3-screen projections on either side of the huge hall. Recognising the material seen previously, I was wondering how it felt for people who didn’t…. Is impact of speed and volume greater than the content? I was attracted by the LED screen at the end of the hall, featuring the titles of each chapter/suitcase but also interfacing with the outside night lights of Brisbane shining through it! Greenaway started the performance with a 10-minute talk which is resumed in this interview.

“Cinema is dead since 1983 with the invention of the remote control” says Greenaway. I would say maybe for the linear narrative cinema (although Tulse Luper has a narrative and linearity)? As for me there is an entire form which had developed since the 1920′s with Russian constructivism, non-narrative cinema using the power of the frame, endless possibilities of analogies underlined by visual and rhythmical compositions and 1983 was also the year of Koyaanisqatsi by Reggio, opening technical possibilities (new lenses and various speed: timelapse and very slow motion) but above all allowing audience feeling and perception to interpret this apology of humankind without words! Yes, the remote control gave access to skip, surf, jump cuts but the frame of the screen is mostly thought still as bi-dimensional while I am very interested to know more about its mobility and tri-dimentionality, ackowledging the “immersion” given by the depth of field of the projection… pondering, pondering….. I’d like to know more about interesting VJ artists, who use interfaces to layer contents in a meaningful way vs gimmickry! Do you have links, info, suggestions?