Discussions' Tangents

Jellyfish - Theatre for Our Times Or Simply............

2010-12-27T05:49:00.001-08:00

Why I

Jellyfish

images: copyright sarah akigbogun

Not cool to wear your heart on your sleeve? Overly sentimental? Tosh! This is a project I would like to shout about in a slightly evangelical way; it is, in my view, a model for the creation of art projects which will become hugely relevant in the years ahead. It was a reminder that often the only way to realise a project is to do it one's self and to beg (maybe not steal) but certainly borrow the materials to make it happen. The Jellyfish, which housed the Oikos Project, was the first of it's kind, a theatre constructed out of entirely recycled materials.

At the end of October Volunteers began dismantling the construction,a hundred and twenty seat theatre, designed by Martin Kaltwaser and Folke Koebberling . It had occupied and activated the Marlborough playground site on Union Street in Southwark for two months, hosting premiers of works by two play-writes, Simon Wu and Kay Ashead.

The plays explored the theme of ecological disaster, and the response of individuals to their resulting circumstances and showcased new work from established writers. The subject matter and form of construction were responses to what the company (Red Room)see as the three big issues confronting us now: over population, finite resources and a rise in world temperatures. Kay Ashead is already an award winning writer and in this powerful new piece, Protozoa, true to form, she tackles her subject with wit and poetry. The play focuses on two women rebuilding their worlds in a stripped bare, post apocalyptic condition. Simon Wu's Oikos, from which the project takes its title, is a thought provoking piece which examines the loss of material possessions in the event of a disaster and how this affects a family whose identity is largely based on the accumulation of such things.

Jellyfish came to fruition in the midst of the current mood of austerity and one can’t help feeling that they, (those who conceived it) got in just under the wire. There is no doubt the funding for such work will be much harder to come by in the next half decade. Particularly following the news that CABE, who as well as providing, sometimes unwelcome, design criticism, funded the Architecture Foundation - the main sponsor of the project.

The site a playground in Southwark was alive for the weeks of the project's occupation...with volunteers constructing, actors rehearsing and audience visiting...

The last few years have seen several, grant aided, visionary theatre projects which cross over into the architectural realm: Shunt’s production, Money, was a full scale renovation of an old industrial site, whilst the Hotel Medea occupied the Arcola theatre to present a re-working of the Medea trilogy. These projects can be thought of as being more in the tradition of site-specific theatre, whilst the jellyfish is closer to the current architectural trend for ‘pop-ups'. All take existing and often neglected sites and reconfigure or occupy them, generating activity where previously none existed or challenging our preconceptions about how a space can be used.

In the case of Jellyfish, the theatre was a temporary installation on the site of a playground in Southwark and the site, a rusted fenced enclosed patch of concrete usually more evocative of a wasteland than it’s intended function, was alive for the weeks of the project’s occupation, with volunteers, constructing, actors rehearsing and audience visiting.

The aesthetic of the project was driven by the nature of the objects donated, may of which gave enigmatic clues to their former existences...

Artistic Director Topher Campbell and The Red Room company sought to make the project engage with contemporary issues - taking the brave decision to construct it out of entirely recycled materials, in keeping with Red Room’s area of interest. The company also sought to engage the community, not just in the consumption of the end work but also the process of making it; so,for example, the water bottles which add dashes of colour to the timber structure were decorated by local primary school children, people were invited to contributed objects and and the theatre itself was built by volunteers. The aesthetic of the project was therefore driven by the nature of objects donated, many of which gave enigmatic clues towards their former existences. Thus the building is a kind of collage of projects past.

Re-using materials and relying on contributed labour is not new to the arts but this project took the ethos of re-using to such an extreme that it can lay claim to being the country's first entirely recycled theatre. As such, perhaps it should be considered a model for projects in the age of austerity. Although conceived on the edge of the boom it was intended to shift our focus towards a time of less than plenty and it seems such a time may, a least temporarily, already be with us.

Part of The Discussions on Film Blog series

Background Image-Janet Cardiff's The Forty Par Motet in Venice

Biennale In Rear View

2010-12-15T18:36:00.000-08:00

Left- Right Wim Wenders as Part of NOW,

Couldscapes,The Chinese Pavilion,

Janet Cardiff, The Chinese Pavilion

images: copyright sarah akigbogun

As the year draws to a close, we thought we would take a retrospective look at a couple of noteworthy events: Venice was for many the high point of the summer's cultural offerings; whilst there we were of course seeking out engaging architectural forays into the world of film and cinematic experiences.

The Arsenale itself is an incredibly filmic setting, which some of the installations really exploited; Transsolar and Tetsuo Kondo Architect's playful Cloudscape , Janet Cardiff's, haunting Forty Part Motet come to mind as pieces that were successful by simply adding another layer to the context and in so doing creating memorable experiences.

In terms of film, as might be expected, Wenders’ ‘If Buildings Could Talk’ drew much attention. In this, his first film about architecture, he explores the premise that buildings can tell us their thoughts and ventures into the use of 3d, another first for him.

A study of the SANNA’s Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, this film is in many ways classic Wenders - the disembodied voice, wondering `narrative and camera in motion; however by augmenting the film with the use of 3d, he creates a heightened, impression of the building’s material quality.

...such elevation above the prosaic is one of the functions of film, if not necesesarily of architecture...

The notion that a building might account for itself in this way, it's thoughts suddenly becoming audible to it's users, leads one to wonder what other buildings gifted with this power might say. Here the voice adds to the sense that the Rolex centre is a kind of Utopia of learning.

This is an unashmedly slick piece of film-making, maybe, rather like its 3d predecessor Avatar, it creates a rather too perfect world...and the deploying of voices? Well, I like the device; in the Wenders masterpiece ‘Wings of Desire’, where it illuminates private worlds it is genious, but here? Well it’s all a little too utopian. Though such elevation above the prosaic is one of the functions of film, if not necessarily of architecture, this is all just a bit too marvelous. However, all that said, the film is, a visually stunning piece, worth watching for the way in which subtly, rather than brashfully exploites the possibilities of 3d technology.

It was a treat to be able to follow the experience by listening to the interview Wenders gives as part of Hans Ulrich Obrist’s NOW installation. In this the director explains his early influences - rather than drawing on the work of other filmmakers, he was initially inspired by painters, particularly Vermeer and the other Dutch masters. From them he learned about framing and story-telling. For me this so illuminated the work I had just seen that I went back and watched it again...

the notion that building might account for itself in this way leads one to wonder what other buildings gifted with this power might say...

There were other filmic gems, hidden away within the Arsenale and amougst the Pavilions of the Giardini, my favourite being the Russian Pavilion-Factory Russia and it’s film about the Russian town Vyshny Volochok.

The Pavilion explores the decay and memory and of buildings. The film, a journey through post industrial wasteland is shot with Tarkovskyesque attention to each frame and is, like Wenders work, exquisitely rendered.

Both films mentioned here are worth a view even out of the Biennale context. One imagines the Wenders film will make some sort of tour or pop up in exhibitions accross Europe and farther a field.

Below are some of the other contributions we liked...

Berger and Berger's Pre-fabicated Pavilion

Trailer / Janet Cardiff / The forty part motet from 0300TV on Vimeo.

...in progress

By Sarah Akigbogun

Part of The Discussions on Film Blog series

Background Image-Janet Cardiff's The Forty Par Motet in Venice