From 2-26 October 2017, Jill Greenhalgh and I collaborated on the structure of the installation performance “The Book of Space” with 11 performers* (from France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Chile, Brazil) and the composer musician Meg Ella (UK).
After 10 days, we showed a work-in-progress to 15 people, including Eugenio Barba, Julia Varley, some Odin Teatret and Magdalena members, who were there also for the launch of the Open Page’s new publication “Future Conditional – Notes for Tomorrow”. This was a great opportunity to get feedback and have lengthy conversations about the work. Some images here.
We had a final showing at the end of our stay attended by local audience, other artists in residence and members of Odin Teatret.
The mini-books I proposed to use in the previous development in Cuba, got re-worked and contain Margaret Cameron’s poetry. We decided to use a big number of them. So, I stitched 250 before our Denmark residency in order to rehearse immediately. While in Holstebro, in the evening when possible, we all continued making them.
I’ve used a new media management software MIX16PRO to manage the videos with 3 projectors.
As part of Odin Teatret community engagement, I also gave a workshop to women refugees utilising for the first time my sculpture books.
ABOUT THE BOOK OF SPACE
This physical and visually immersive work disrupts the pace of contemporary living and offers alternative perspectives on spatiality, time and knowledge. Jill Greenhalgh and Suzon Fuks draw on the nurturing power of books, using them poetically to symbolise the transition from analog to digital realms, to evoke real and virtual spaces, and to redefine intimate and communal experiences. Audiences are invited to notice how new media technologies influence and manipulate perceptions of ‘reality’, and to look between usual frames of reference and dwell there for a while.
The 55-minute performance is the second in a trilogy of works made as part of Greenhalgh’s The Quietude Project. The series focuses on creating refuges from the bombardment of noise, information overload and escapist trivia that saturate contemporary living, engaging performance as a place of reflection.
The Book of Space has been in development since 2014 and presented as a work-in-progress in numerous contexts including the University of Aberystwyth (August 2015), Magdalena Montpellier Festival in France (September 2015), the Transit Festival in Denmark (June 2016) and Magdalena Sin Fronteras Festival in Cuba (January 2017).
WHAT PEOPLE SAID ABOUT ‘THE BOOK OF SPACE’
“A work on presence, slowness, rigour. Essential, clear and full of breath”
“The piece was gorgeous—for its dramaturgy, its scenography and its demand for nothing.”
“Beautiful imagery – Eugenio Barba”
* Big thank you to the performers: Amaranta Osorio, Antonietta Munoz, Esther Jerez, Luciana Martuchelli, Magdalena Mazur, Patrycja Dynowska, Silvia Moreno, Therese Besomi, and Veronica Ilse Moraga Fruchte. Claire Engel and Giulia Esposito also took part the first 10 days.
Special thanks to Julia Varley, Eugenio Barba, and all members of the Odin, including (without being exhaustive) Fausto and Paul!
Suzon Fuks has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body and is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
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