Zbig Rybczynski's Tango (1982)

I've already written about Zbig Rybczynski. Now through this great Portuguese blog about animation, I found Rybczynski's Oscar-winning Tango.

Technorati: movies, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

"Who's Afraid of Representation": a concept of flesh and bones

Look at the history of performance art. Was it all in vain? All this suffering, the blood and the desperation, all for nothing? For an Art that is part of history now, that we look upon with a melancoly smile, like when you hear a child ask something silly? In Who's Afraid of Representation (shown at the Alkantara Festival), Lina Saneh and Rabih Mroué seem to look at it more like when you hear a child ask something impossible. "When we suffer, is it because we were bad?" "But what sense does it make?" And finally, our favorite: "But why?"
Saneh and Mroué seem to have decided: because of something.
This time, the history of performance art has to do with one thing: Lebanon.
In this version, the "historic" performances (of the likes of Gina Pane, Marina Abramović, Chris Burden) are put in the context of the horrible, painful history of contemporary Lebanon. Almost as if it all made sense. As if it were inscribed somewhere, justifying something, coming from somewhere further than art's, or the perfomer's, belly. Mroué and Saneh need this. They need to explain, to comprehend, to gasp the sense, some sense, in the history they know.
Is it true? The answer is neither yes or no: it's representation. It's somebody telling you something the way it could make sense. Because it has to make sense - otherwise it simply isn't worth telling. Or waking up.
I suppose Who's Afraid of Representation left many people unsatisfied. It is a simple scheme, easily understood, and dramaturgically modest.
I liked it. Because in its pure and simple game that linked a true story of a Lebanese man who went too far to the history of body art, it made me ask the naive questions.
***
Questioning conceptual art is good. Especially, when you're able to give these concepts another life. Fill them with new blood.
***
And here is one for the specialists: How does a concept handle a history? As Hegel might have said, history handles it, over and over again. It doesn't need to handle history.

Technorati: theater, theatre, performance, performance art, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

San Francisco in Jell-O

Elizabeth Hickok, San Francisco in Jell-O, C-Prints (2004)

Why, o why, am I so shallow
As to like the art in Jell-O
As to find the playful pretty
And misjudge silly for witty?

Technorati: art installation, installation, visual art, fine art, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

Jan Lauwers' "Isabella's Room" at the Alkantara Festival

Isabella's Room by Jan Lauwers and the Needcompany is a performance combining theater, dance and music (as in: musical, singing...).

Here is a story of a surface. Telling the story of a surface might just be the most difficult thing. When you're on the surface of the stage.
Here is a story where the word "lie" comes back in all the forms, as all its synonyms.
Here is a theater play that is an excuse to tell a story about Lauwers' father. Here is a life of an imagined woman that is an excuse for a theater play. Here is a play that's and excuse for a performance. A performance that's an excuse for a dance piece. A dance piece that's an excuse for a musical.
A musical. In the most common of worlds, that would be the right description, combining all the genres in an entertaining suite. Somehow, this is not enough. And somehow, this isn't necessarily a good sign.
It all starts with an excellent prologue. Excellent, because honest. Lauwers goes to the front of the stage and while the spectators are still entering, starts telling the story of how the play came about, and who plays who, introducing all the performers very casually.
And I would love it all to stay that way. Which it doesn't, because then begins the play. With all the problems a theatrical distance may bring, with all the longdiscourses that the self-centered artists got us used to (the text is also by Lauwers), with the tricks and licks of contemporary theater (suddenly changing subjects, rhythms, levels of performance, juxtaposing various languages and references...). What's my problem with that? Here is an example: For a very long time the confusion between the dead and the live is just confusion. But since anything goes, the characters lose the name of action. Which makes them at the same time surprizing and difficult to believe, and thus completely unsurprizing.
Lauwers himself stays onstage, oscillating between the roles of author and actor, sometimes reminding me of the productions of Tadeusz Kantor, the Polish director that continued directing his actors during some performances. But this is more modern, more slick, clean, and...distant.
In the best moments, it reminds me of some more jazzy and theater-wild version of Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. Only Lauwers avoids Hollywood stories at all costs. His plot swirls and jumps and stretches to the very limits, creating a contemporary, personal ritual.
The memories brought on stage are more and more violent, the world seems increasingly corrupt and difficult to handle, death leaves nothing behind, neither does bitterness. Still, they dance and sing. And move on. Slowly. I suppose a ritual should be slow, but that's one reason I rarely attend rituals. This is not my time.
Everything is an excuse for everything. A beautiful, stylish excuse. Like in some jazz jam session that struggles for heterogeneity. But where does the jazz go once it's all set and fixed?
"I think you're just confused. You think too much and then your imagination runs wild." - Isabella's Room.

ps: See other reviews here. (damn, am I the only one who isn't extatic about it?)

Technorati: dance, performance, theater, theatre, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

Read More (English)

Although we all agree that art is not just visual art, it is sometimes difficult to get off the paved track of pictures. And so, anything from music through performing arts through literature seems to vanish in the haze. As if it were a different matter.
LibraryThing, as you might have guessed, is a project that has to do with reading. It is as simple as a good idea can get: share what you read. Share it with others, but also - share it with yourself. By creating a virtual library of your own books, you enter the realm of infinite connections and marvelous adventures. Well, you get the picture. You organize your books, tag them, describe them, and, above all, see what you've been missing. You can see who else owns these titles and what else they own, and thus start jumping from one tree to another... Of course, you can rate them and compare your ratings with others. Of course, if you don't like the Web 2.0 idea of communication network, you can have a private library and forget all the rest. And what's really pretty, and I mean real nice, is that you just type a tiny bit of info, and the rest is filled in automatically through one of the nearly 50 libraries its connected to worldwide(among them, the Library of Congress). If you can't find it - you can always import it, say, scanning the image and putting in the data.
I see one downside: language. Having books in several languages, I find it difficult to share and follow only the books printed in English. There has been a surge in French books (thanks to some positive internet press in France), but all this is just painfully slow. Once again, it somehow feels as if the world was English, and the rest was an appendix (one Polish library, none in Portuguese...). Then again, if the rest of the world simply doesn't make all these great sites... Then again, if they did, how would I know about it? (see the geographical location of LibraryThing users here.
This is a very young initiative (started less than a year ago). It has relatively few books on art. We could start changing that.
Signing up is just unbelievably easy. Just write your username and a password, and you're in. My mini-test-catalogue is here. If you want to catalog over 200 books, it costs $10 (for a year) or $25 (lifetime). Methinks: yay.

Technorati: reading, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

Alkantara Festival

Yay! Great stuff is coming to town! The Alkantara Festival brings together theater, dance and performance in a well-curated blend. Starting off will be Jan Lauwers, and then all sorts of brilliant people, including the likes of Jerôme Bel and Forced Entertainment, or, on a more local but no less talented level, Jõao Fiadeiro and Patrícia Portela.

I will be seeing a significant part of the shows, so expect reviews. If you're Portuguese, you can also read more extensive and erudite reviews at O Melhor Anjo.

Technorati: theatre, performance, dance, performance art, theater, art, contemporary art, new art, vvoi, vvoitek, modern art, cool

Who are you?

Publishing almost daily on the net is very strange. I only get an echo very rarely through the comments or sometimes e-mails. Some people quote me or link to me. But other than that, I really have no idea. It's like some sort of a strange anonymous community, whose scope and identity seem nearly random. This particular project, this blog, has personal objectives. But it exists in public space. And yet, other than the daily statistics (and a few cents I earn every week from your encouragement), this public space seems almost transparent. And I want more. So back to you:

1. What brought you here?
2. What did you like?
3. What could be better?
4. What do you like?
5. What do you dislike?
6. What is the first image/event you remember from childhood?
7. What is the best thing/work you've seen, live or on the net, in the last month?
8. What should you be doing now?
9. What is your eye color?
10. What other place have you ever considered living in?
11. What other questions?