With its attention turned towards experimental and innovative works of performing arts, Atalante offers a space for the artistic works, a discourse surrounding those works, and the field at large. This season we will delve deeper into the various universes of the artists presenting work and make space for a dialogue between the artists, the spectators and the venue. This in way of acknowledging that experimentalism is never a given–that which once was experimental becomes canonised. Hence the importance of nurturing and continuing the conversation and presentation of this kind of work in its past, present and future form.
The experimental is by definition innovative because it forces both artist and spectator to review their preconceived ideas of what the “traditional” might be and is a great source of controversy, if we take controversy in its literal sense as “to turn against”. Turning against the notion of what “should” be demands equal effort from artist and spectator to remain disposable towards that which isn’t ready-made. We all know the effort it takes to learn a new skill–countless are the times one feels like giving up–yet if one persists, the simple joy of having overcome the mental or physical obstacle makes it worth the while and we end up with a new way of existing in the world, whether it be learning mathematics, juggling or languages. Experiencing experimental works on stage is no different. The more we are exposed to that kind of work the more likely it is that we can create a discourse around it and appreciate it on its own terms. The perceived otherness of the experimental then has the potential to align itself within us and become a mode of existence in itself.
Discussing the experimental treatment of stage works involves being perceptive towards other ways of defining staging, directing and dramaturgy. Although the subject matters of “traditional” and “experimental” works may be the same there is a significant difference in the approach they take towards the subject matter. The term “experimental theatre” has a wider scope and has been more readily used within the theatrical canon than the term “experimental dance” within the dance canon. There are a host of reasons for this, one of the most obvious is the fact that dance has historically been underrepresented in literature and writing. Another reason is that of value hierarchies, in a society where the word-is-law in state and religious affairs the language of the body is always invalidated. Luckily, this view is no longer as widespread and we are living through a time where dance and movement based work is being rejuvenated as artists are considering alternative modes of existing within their own history.
In theatre, it is common to find alternative stagings of classical works where the director has altered the time period, gender or location of the original. Doing so does not automatically deem a work experimental. Another edge is required to be present in the work that questions the very foundations of the original work in a manner that marks a radical shift in the mise en scene and dramaturgy of the work at hand. In dance/movement based work other points of reference adhere when staging experimental work. Freed from the constraints of the text, the body and other materials emerge as necessary starting points for the choreographer. By provoking the imagination through corporeal visual, aural and sensory suggestions it becomes possible to posit these modes as semantic realities in their own right and thus move beyond the meaning-making and signification of spoken language. The physical body in its entirety is used as source material that adheres to its own poetics. Theatre, dance and movement based work still remain closely linked and share the ethos (and origin) of the stage as the place to raise questions about our societies and one another in those societies in ways that other forms of art cannot. In this sense the stage is other than the Fine Arts as its conditions involve the living human body and not its representation.
That which is other also attends to the personal: the perception of ourselves. Confronted with the idea of “I am this, I am that” we find that thought has turned itself against ourselves: we have become an object in a world of objects. Faced with this inner alienation produced by thought we find that we no longer know how to exist as entities acting without being aware of who it is that acts: we have become self-aware. This fundamental human condition is examined by art in general. The stage, however, is a unique arena capable of upsetting the dichotomy between these two objective realities– “I” and “Other”– by treating them as pure phenomena. That is to say, when I am experiencing a performance the “I” and the “Other” have the possibility of being absolved. The condition of such an absolution requires experience without thought, or to put it differently, pure experience without self-awareness. This is due to the fact that all mental activity is only capable of processing the past or the future–never the present. Performance, however, exists only in the present. As such, we must concede that if thought intervenes during a performance the “I” has distanced itself from pure experience and we have inevitably “stepped out” of the performance. Left on the shores of self-awareness “I” return to being an object in the world of objects and the enchantment of the performance has vanished.
To avoid the disenchantment of the performance the imaginary and its faculties plays a significant role. Here the artists are faced with the ungratifying task of staying committed to a simple set of structures in order to enable the possibility of the spectator immersing themselves in the imaginary. The artist constantly exercises courage by their insistence upon an artistic vision that is sufficiently unique that it paradoxically leaves space for universality. The courage lies here in trusting the human experience. This is particularly evident in movement based theatre and dance whence the body exists before anything else–a body that all human beings inhabit and experience the world through. Paying homage to this fundamental phenomenological fact of (corporeal) existence demands that the artist examines the (e)motions of the body–its intimacy and its otherness.
Upon closer inspection of the the autumn season it is evident to see that there are subtle tendencies at work that reflect a certain unrest present in the questioning of the artists. This unrest no doubt reflects a wider scope of speculation concerning the current political, environmental and spiritual climate we find ourselves inhabiting. The otherness we experience presents a kind of ontological disequilibrium: if we experience otherness are we the cause of otherness to others? Further questions follow; is the other purely human or do we feel otherness towards our experience of selfhood, other species, the elemental forces, God, and, where do we place the fascination with the otherworldly in their demonic or ghostly appearances?
Reflektion & text: Josephine Gray
Måndagen 21/10 kl. 19.00 bjuder Atalante även in till ett samtal kring dessa ämnen med en panel av gästartister som spelar på Atalante i höst. Varmt välkommen!