I just went to Flickr.com and searched for Faustin Linyekula and some of the images that came up were pretty amazing. I think I got caught up in the excitement of the party / social aspect of this performance, and overlooked how aesthetically exciting this show will be.
Click here for a slideshow.
A piece in the New York Times this morning highlighted a New York spectacle that is being deemed an “installation/street art hybrid”. Melena Ryzik’s article; Taking it to the Streets, is about a work by Yehuda Duenyas entitled "One Million Forgotten Moments” which seats an audience in a street front
window that has been refitted to look like a jewel-box theater. Not only is the performance laden with actors, dancers, chorus girls, a skateboarding team and a magician, but it also turns its eye out on the public. So the random pedestrian flicking his cigarette to the curb and the cab driver picking his nose in his taxi, when framed by the proscenium of the storefront window, become monumental performances.
In reading the article I couldn’t help but think that this is an performance theme that I’m hearing about with more and more frequency. Actors and dancers are taking our notion of what a theater space is and stretching those assumptions– or in some cases completely blowing them apart.
When Philip Bither gave his introductory talk about the Walker’s Performing Arts season, he talked about this being one of the curatorial threads he used in putting together this year’s season. What he’s calling the In:Site/Out series (Gob Squad, Miguel Gutierrez’s Powerful People, Claude Wampler, Faustin Linyekula, and Back to Back Theatre) will all be doing what Duenyas has done in New York by redefining audience/performer relationships and restructuring the way we think about theatrical space.
I think that there’s a certain sense of pride in knowing that the things that are turning heads in the Big Apple, the theater capital of America, are also turning heads here in…. well… the Minniapple.
Many will remember that in March the Walker’s film department screened Melody Gilbert’s film Urban Explorers– a documentary about a mischievous group of people probing the deteriorating history of urban environments. Gilbert isn’t the only one interested citywide reconnaissance missions. The themes of urban landscape exploration and documentation will be back at the Walker with this year’s Performing Arts season opener: Super Night Shot by the UK/Germany’s Gob Squad.
The Gob Squad group will hit the street an hour before the performance, armed with video cameras. While they’re out, we, the audience will be tipping back a drink in 20.21’s restaurant lounge. They’ll split up into four pairs, each group with a performer and a videographer. They’ll scour Minneapolis’ corners, and return to a hero’s welcome (us… partying in at 20.21…. armed with Silly String and confetti) with an hour’s worth of videotaped urban exploration. Then the performance itself will be a four-channel live mixing of the previous hour’s Minneapolitan exploration. It’ll be an amazing way to get a new perspective on your home town. PLUS, you get a free drink at 20.21 with your ticket!
The Walker’s 07/08 Performing Arts Season is just getting kicked off. Trumping last year’s 25-performance season, the 07/08 season steps it up with 27 music, dance, theater and performing arts shows.
On Thursday, September 6th at 7pm, as part of the Target Free Thursday Night events, Performing Arts Senior Curator Philip Bither will talk about the upcoming season. He’ll introduce this year’s artists and unpack a little of what goes on in his brain when he curates a year’s worth of performance.
This year, the folks in the Walker’s Performing Arts Department put together a short video trailer, just to whet your whistle:
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