A week ago I had the opportunity to talk to Roos van Geffen about her work in progress, Adem (breath). She has been rehearsing for a couple of weeks at the Huis a/d Werf and she just made a short video with one of the actresses she is working with, in order to keep track of her research process. In it, the actress nods while looking into the camera. Subtle changes make the movement appear completely different. At first, it is a perfectly neutral nod, without any hint of anything else. Then she nods with her head up high, her eyes slightly down, but still looking straight into the camera. Later on, she lowers her head completely, still nodding, with her chin almost touching her chest. Finally, her nodding becomes violent, plunging her head into a furious dance. But the frenzy suddenly gives way and all movement stops. I feel tempted to describe the feelings that this movements might induce in the spectators: 'when her head is lifted she looks at us with contempt, when her head is lowered, she looks gloomy', that kind of things. But that is not completely accurate. Describing the movements in such a way is not being true to what actually goes on in the film. And as Roos tells me, the video itself is a poor substitute for the live version of those actions. That is why I ask her if I can see one of her rehearsals, a privilege she happily grants me. So the next day I join her and her team. It is fascinating to see Roos at work with the actors. She looks at them with such intensity, pursuing with them the discovery of actions that can have an peculiar resonance. She engages in this research process with patience and curiosity, looking for something very unique. But what is it that she is looking for? When I ask her, she says that in her performances she is always trying to create a moment of silence, to prepare the members of the audience to enjoy a moment of untroubled calmness. A prime example of this is We, one of her former theater works. There, two spectators were lead to a moment where they could look at each other for three minutes. In most of her previous experiential projects, the spectators had very individual experiences. This time, her work Adem, will maintain all this intimacy, while moving into a more conventional theater stage. This work will premiere at the Festival a/d Werf 2010.
P.S. After seeing the rehearsal, I have to agree that the video cannot capture the whole complexity of what is happening on stage... so I will not embed the video it here. Anyways, I hope these words have triggered the imagination of the readers of this blog, and their curiosity to come to the festival and check out the work of Roos. I leave you, however, with a short interview with her.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
VIEWMASTER: The series
“The thing is in a place, but perception in nowhere.”Merleau-Ponty
On Friday the 26th of February, Finnish artist Inari Salmivaara presented the performance that marked the end of her research period with Viewmaster. After three weeks of intense work with two performers, her work premiered with two sold-out events at the Huis a/d Werf. The result was an elegant exploration of the way in which we perceive the world around us. It had a contemplative rhythm that induced people into sharing the artist's questions about perception and reality. It was a beautiful and sober performance that was greatly appreciated, at least from what I could gather in the after-talks. Furthermore, the original creators of Viewmaster (Heike Langsdorf, Ula Sickle and Laurent Liefooghe ) were excited about the results. This is the first stone in the road of Viewmaster:The Series, a collaborative approach where different artists will be invited to come and work with the machine that developed last year, after an 19th century optical effect often referred to as the Pepper's ghost effect.
The following video show an excerpt of the research process:
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