Later, the penultimate performance of Tallinn's NU Performance Festival, is something of a mystery to me. Developed by Mexican/German artist Julia Rodriguez, the performance is a contemplative, choreographed meditation on objecthood. Rodriguez begins with objects on a white stage, clothed only in a long t-shirt, sitting in the corner, with legs spread in the best impersonation of Gustave Courbet's L'Origine du monde*. The performer eyes the audience as they enter and take their seats, a plodding hotel-lobby soundtrack accompanying, that will be present throughout the performance.
It's an affronting opening, in a way, if nothing else for the diversity of objects without obvious relationship to one another. There's a particular violence to that, and it's one Rodriguez exploits throughout as she proceeds through the performance. The main question for me is the theme, which is only loosely described in the program notes and which does not obviously reveal itself throughout - rather existing as a puzzle of objects which the audience may piece together into a meaningful whole. Or not.
Essentially, the performance is quite simple. Rodriguez activates different objects in the space, setting up cushions, turning a fan to oscillate, or tracing the line of her legs with a feather-duster. There's traces of eroticism, not in the least because she is half-naked for the entire performance - but it's somehow not the focus, and Rodriguez seems more concerned with the relationship between her body and the objects, and her power to manipulate them. This is realised when some spoken text finally emerges: a direct-address diatribe about buildings collapsing into dust, and other forms of vanishing.
The outstanding quality of the performance is its pin-drop atmosphere - I literally didn't hear a single shuffle, cough, or sniffle from the spellbound audience. Whilst the specifics of Rodriguez's own argument may elude me, I left feeling that a concrete takeaway was perhaps unimportant - the impression and feeling created by the piece being so stark. Besides, the relationship to the theme of the festival, 'Objects with Audience' perhaps provided all the clarity that's needed.
Later
by Julia Rodriguez
Kanuti Gildi SAAL
*Alternatively, I suppose, any other artwork featuring a vagina. Possibly I associate it with this particular painting perhaps because of the sense of display or affront evoked by both artists.
It's an affronting opening, in a way, if nothing else for the diversity of objects without obvious relationship to one another. There's a particular violence to that, and it's one Rodriguez exploits throughout as she proceeds through the performance. The main question for me is the theme, which is only loosely described in the program notes and which does not obviously reveal itself throughout - rather existing as a puzzle of objects which the audience may piece together into a meaningful whole. Or not.
Essentially, the performance is quite simple. Rodriguez activates different objects in the space, setting up cushions, turning a fan to oscillate, or tracing the line of her legs with a feather-duster. There's traces of eroticism, not in the least because she is half-naked for the entire performance - but it's somehow not the focus, and Rodriguez seems more concerned with the relationship between her body and the objects, and her power to manipulate them. This is realised when some spoken text finally emerges: a direct-address diatribe about buildings collapsing into dust, and other forms of vanishing.
The outstanding quality of the performance is its pin-drop atmosphere - I literally didn't hear a single shuffle, cough, or sniffle from the spellbound audience. Whilst the specifics of Rodriguez's own argument may elude me, I left feeling that a concrete takeaway was perhaps unimportant - the impression and feeling created by the piece being so stark. Besides, the relationship to the theme of the festival, 'Objects with Audience' perhaps provided all the clarity that's needed.
Later
by Julia Rodriguez
Kanuti Gildi SAAL
*Alternatively, I suppose, any other artwork featuring a vagina. Possibly I associate it with this particular painting perhaps because of the sense of display or affront evoked by both artists.
No comments:
Post a Comment