Locus Solus is situated in the context of contemporary investigations of intermediality. The intermedia approach emphasizes the dialectic between the media; the reference frame of the entire system of art forms that mediates the intermedial correlation is itself included in the processes of transformation. Intermedia is considered as a combinatory structure of syntactical elements that come from more than one medium but are combined into one and are thereby transformed into a new entity. Intermediality is not reliant only on technology, as it is often believed, however, technology often provides with more possibilities for exploring the potentials and limits of every art medium. The project explored the interaction between live performance, technology and some “new” technologies.
Locus Solus [1] investigates intermediality as a radical force that operates in-between realities, hence, the project was presented both in an art venue and the public domain. The effects of intermedia practice involved new modes of representation, new dramaturgical strategies, new ways of creating temporal and spatial interrelations, which has lead to a remediation of the interface between the theatre and the visual arts.
The interface between technology and live performance was explored by The Erasers, a group whose work is based on the integration of various seemingly diverse elements such as: live cinema/ improvised music/ performance_actions/ the internet/ and installation techniques. These materials, or various forms are incorporated into each of their performances with the objective of creating an overall experience/ a new "open" work, in which the audience can be immersed and yet have the freedom of expression and interpretation. The combination of these diverse elements is based on The Erasers research for a new audio-visual language. The Erasers are an open circuit: they are as few or as many as each project demands and they all function within the free association that the erasers are. The erasers search for the possibility of presenting their work to an open and unbiased audience has led them to work under various pseudonyms, some of these being: the instructors and the curators.
As an ongoing three-year practice based research project Locus Solus, is transformed every time it is presented. These shifts are used as a scenografic practice that generates critical “points of view,” concerning scenographic materials, these site-responsive works challenge the working practices of set, costume, lighting, sound and video designers. The first presentation of this modular project took place in London in April. The production sought to present issues involving private (solitary) and public space hence it dealt with space, in terms of its physical transformation, through the movement of both the spectators and the performers. The overall effect was a live exhibition. These procedural acoustic and visual installations were constructed by the architects, the visual artists and the scenographers remained "in situ," and were only transformed during the interaction with the performers for the actual performance.
Parallel events, which affected the public sphere, were also integrated in the project, in view of the correlation between Public and Private, Solitary Space (Locus Solus). By investigating intermediality as a radical force, that operates in-between realities, the project involved both the reality of an art venue and of the public domain. The space of representation, a metaphor for the private (solitary) space of Locus Solus, was The Shunt Vaults, an artistic venue (a 70,000 square foot network of railway arches under London Bridge Station).[3] The public space was represented by the city of London, the city of New York and by mappings of Locus Solus in natural landscapes. By situating the project in the public sphere Out of the Box Intermedia wanted to experiment with the potential of artistic intervention. In collaboration with researchers from the School of Architecture, University of Patras, The University of Columbia in New York and The University of Thessaly, the project investigated points of intersection (connections, linkages, overlaps) between the project and the public domain of the City. Locus Solus operates metaphorically as a representation of a private space transformed into a public act. These moving tableaux (as imagined by Roussel), their poetic facets and incarnations of flânerie (drifting) were transposed beyond the empirical spaces of the city. The processual, as a form and these constructed textual, visual and aural environments, will be the framework for thinking about the relationships between “private-solitary” and “public” space.
Therefore, parallel to its representational aspects the project involved intermediality, artistic interventions in the public sphere of London and New York, took place. Locus solus public: conversations curatives project was one of the parallel events, which consisted of various methods[4] for collecting written and oral texts. The Aylesbury collecting action was one of the methods used for collecting data. The successive pages of Roussel’s books Locus Solus and How I wrote Certain of my Books were placed in successive garage doors around the interior courtyard of Aylesbury block Gayhurst 1-61, in such a way that the books could be read by walking the perimeter of the courtyard, clockwise. This action was a performance of field and networks in the city. Informal talks with residents were produced during and after the action.
The conversations were collected as part of the walking session works, to be used as base material for personal uttering recensions, during the Locus Solus Public: Conversations Curatives Project. A Wiki recension, was also produced, as one of the methods of collecting data by the group; the wiki works as a textual performance space. In the City of New York, the architect Kostas Alivizatos, work deploys an analogy between the labyrinth and the city, also, in relation to the bookshop “Locus Solus Rare Books,” which is located in the heart of New York's historic Upper East Side, at the corner of Madison Avenue and 67th Street. The project uses the dialectic of antithetical elements in the form of displacement of the body in repetition and constant alternations. White: Outside, Individual, Day. Black: Inside, Collective, Night. The rhythm of displacement was examined in terms of sound. The signs of the movement of the body were translated into signs in the city and were photographed during the night or the day (depending on the colour).
The second production of Locus Solus, took place in Athens at the Byzantine Museum.[6] The Museum was transformed into the vast Estate of Locus Solus. Martial Canterel and his luxurious laboratories in the villa were installed site-specifically at different locations of the museum. Site responsive scenographic practice at the Byzantine Museum focused on the notion of the light and the palindrome.
[1] “Locus Solus” Performance at the Shunt Vaults
[2] The Erasers is a group whose work is based on the integration of various seemingly diverse elements such as: live cinema/ improvised music/ performance_actions/ the internet/ and installation techniques. These materials, or various forms are incorporated into each of the erasers performances with the goal of creating an overall experience/ a new "open" work, in which the audience can be immersed and yet have the freedom of expression and interpretation.
[3] “Shunt Theatre Collective," one of the collaborators of “Out of the Box Intermedia” is a group that was formed in 1998 by ten artists and which is committed to creating performances in found spaces, which involve audiences in ways other than simply as passive observers. The collective's objective is to explore the nature of the live event, hoping to change the public's perception of theatre/performance – by producing work of innovation and quality that integrates theatre with audio/visual art, circus, dance, and other art forms - in order to encourage a new audience for its work.
[4] e.g. “stealing data”, organized meetings and interviews, informal talks, chance encounters, readings in autonomous spaces, meetings, discussions with residents, interviews with residents, city texts, collecting action in Aylesbury block Gayhurst 1-61 etc. in different places that are not predefined, but are revealed during walking processes (sessions).
[5] Links:
Conversations Curatives Project, Wiki recension
Panos Kouros set on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/panos_kouros/sets/72157617484232916/
Aylesbury Collecting Action open public performance.
Working team: Panos Kouros with Elena Chronopoulou, Nora Demjaha, Giota Dimitropoulou, Athena Kokla, Elephant & Castle, London, April, 2009. Laboratory for Visual Arts, Department of Architecture, University of Patras.
[6] Byzantine Museum http://www.byzantinemuseum.gr
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