Page 120 - PIP

'The Emergency Artist' is the second piece in this series of performances on rhythm. From the beginning I knew it was about this moment of emergency we’re all in, and the very moment of rupture. But even more so, it is about the fears, anxieties and discourse of our times relating to this emergency. Underpinning the work is the following question: how can we be artists of the fall/of failure?
How can we be Sturzkünstler, able to fall and come back again, champions of falling. I asked Stevie Koglin, a virtuoso in “art du déplacement”, to perform, and we built a special construction for him - a big angle that can be manipulated by technicians, on which Stevie could balance. The piece was also made with two dancers from the dance Cie Studio in Zagreb and three performers/technicians from Berlin. We had a very mechanical and physical score, both in terms of the movement and in terms of the voice. We vocalise mantras from the 1960s revolution. This revolution was a lot about “living now”, but in our time of emergency, this urge to live now has become a manipulative tool to keep people consuming.
“Now or never” has become a source of fear and anxiety that is compensated by sweeteners, Nike shoes or smartphones. The tools controlling modern society are not any more the “order” of the police.
The dangers of our lives are not any more the boredom of the highly controlled society of the 1960s, but rather the anxiety coming from these imperatives of success, and the absence of structure and stable ground. Rhythmically the piece adds up, like a construction game; one thing is repeated and the next step is added to it, then a third performer adds to it, meanwhile the first stops and adds something again. This way the piece evolves into a more and more complex situation. Moreover, a climax is reached only to lead to yet another round where the first part is repeated, this time with three more performers or technicians.
They manipulate the angle by placing it on a wheel or moving it upside down, hereby making the repetition of the first part even more challenging. The moment of emergency is never reached, but is always there as a phantom possibility: while watching the piece, feelings of suspension and fear arise and this question of “what is going to happen?” This work consists not only of a performance in two acts, but also includes an installation and the exhibition of three videos. Before the show, the audience passes through a maze made of sand in a room next to the theatre and can watch the videos on display. These elements are each a study of emergency through different mediums.
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