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- Volume 31, Issue 179, 2016
Maska - Volume 31, Issue 179-180, 2016
Volume 31, Issue 179-180, 2016
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Actor and Puppet on the Contemporary Stage
More LessAbstractThe article discusses the changes in puppetry that occurred mostly in the second half of the 20th century. It addresses the changes in organization that led from small family groups to institutionalized public institutions and follows the organizational example of ensembles of drama theatre institutions, as well as changes in the relationship between the animator and the puppet that allow the disillusioning emergence of the animator into the visual field of the viewer. The “manipulator” who is no longer hidden influences the change in the manner of narration, in the aesthetic and the political senses both; at the same time, the qualitative difference between the manipulator as a living, physical and human being and the puppet on the other side is suddenly revealed. The article concludes by addressing the ethical dimension in the puppet theatre as it stresses the understanding of the puppet as the face of the other whose life is the responsibility of the human being. The article carries out its instructive review and theses with the help of several illustrative examples.
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’Man’ as X-Foucault, Kant and their doublets
More LessAbstractThe concept of ‘man’ is introduced by Michel Foucault in the context of a discursive formation that, for him, emerges toward the end of the 18th century, following the epistemes of the Renaissance and Classical periods, which, by way of contrast, had foregrounded similarity and representation as ordering principles. Instead of a guaranteed correspondence between the subject and the object of thought, the modern era is concerned with the finitude of concrete ‘human beings’ in their relation to an abstract ‘humanity’, and asks under what conditions is a correlation of a subject with its objects possible in experience.
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As a Cloud Shaped by the Winds
More LessAbstractWith the words “I hereby resign from art” imprinted on a postcard in 1985, Joseph Beuys seems to retrospectively summarize what has been the whole attempt of his art: withdrawing from the image, resisting the achieved discourse. Beuys shows, above all, the potentiality of this interruption: different equal possibilities dwell always in the same matter and no future form is predetermined or necessary. The matter does not have a unique destiny, but rather exposes an uncertainty that asks to be investigated in the present. The matter emerges from the point of view of its sheer contingency of becoming all forms, as a cloud shaped by the winds, and Beuys’ artistic measures all aim to bring the material into play as the non-human performer of the creation.
While opening a reflection on the concept of the possible, this article puts into question the very form of its presentation. Scholars in Humanities often use images when presenting their thoughts and reflections: powerpoints are prepared following a unique line, and images in a presentation are used to sustain a single given discourse. But what if these images, while refusing to follow a single line and appearing all together, as in a Warburgian constellation, were able to suggest completely different connections and different possible discourses in the empty space among them?
The article discloses a space where the notion of contingency affects content and form; it shares a possible discourse, but it presents it as a possible one; it discloses a space where images – in their different impulses, like winds coming from different directions – open up the vitality of their uncertain relation.
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Between the Body, the Object and the Image: Dance and the Visual Arts in Puppet Art
More LessAbstractThe close connection between creation, theory, and institutions is the starting point for the author’s reflection on the kinds of spaces the latter should prepare. He emphasises that of particular interest are those spaces that are established between different approaches (or rather relationships between the body, the object, and the image). In Reprendre son soufflé by Julika Mayer, the puppet and the actor form a relationship that leaves none of the participants untouched but allows their identities to be changed. Similarly, the puppeteer-dancer in Uta Gebert’s Anubis reveals himself in order to uncover the relationship which links him and the puppet: both exist solely in motion, in the zone of exchange. Bodies and objects, assembled into body-objects, seem to meet by chance in Miet Warlop’s Springville, but in the forefront is the Image, which follows a visual logic in placing the body-objects in different configurations. On the other hand, the space occupied by the body in Yngvild Aspeli’s Signaux is undefined: the actor, his puppet-double, and his phantom limb embody a feeling of strangeness and pain. In the project Anémochore, Christophe Le Blay enables the embodiment of the environment (the wind) in the image of a recorded trace, with which a dancer then engages in dance. Space is therefore something unfinished, something open, undefinable and empty, all of which applies equally to bodies, objects, and images.
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The Comeback of Objects: On vacuum cleaners, plastic bottles, hair dryers, chairs, brooms, sand & other nonhuman performers on contemporary stages
More LessAbstractThe article scrutinizes the recent phenomenon of an increased involvement of things into contemporary choreographies and thematizes the relation between human and nonhuman performers. It traces a shift from semantic investigations of objects in the 1990s to agential realist approaches since about 2008. By referring to Bruno Latour's conception of things as actants and by introducing basic notions of actor-networktheory, the essay proposes a posthumanist understanding of performativity (as outlined by Karen Barad) and ponders about the ethical, political and ecological implications of posthumanist choreographies/dance.
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Deleuze’s “Puppetry” and the Ethics of Non-human Compositions
By Aline WiameAbstractWhile the presence of marionettes and automata in contemporary performing arts can sometimes manifest the fear of a loss of life and humanity due to the mechanization of our societies, this article calls for a more constructivist approach to the question. With the help of Gilles Deleuze’s propositions about marionettes and Heiner Goebbels’ performance Stifters Dinge, this paper aims to show that puppets and automata are invitations to create and compose new possibilities of being, sensing, thinking and resisting in a world made of human and non-human elements that constantly mix.
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“Hello World”
By Amit DroriAbstractIsraeli artist and theatre maker Amit Drori reflects on the creative process that led him to create robotic-based performances. This was not an organized plan but rather an artistic evolution that began during his studies at the School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem, and developed in his work as a professional artist. Coming from a background of visual theatre and puppetry, Drori’s approach to robotics uses the knowledge and philosophy of puppetry and animation forms. Drori creates unique machines that are designed for emotional and poetic functionalities. “Hello world” follows the personal process of his artistic development, but also tries to discern the cultural roots and transformations of the accessibility of knowledge in the open source revolution.
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The Axe-Files
More LessAbstractThe St. Petersburg-based AXE was founded in 1989 and describes itself as “Russian Engineering Theatre”. Their productions are not a ready-made stage performances but rather an interactive building process between actor and pace. Instead of the polished result of their work, AXE shares their raw and unfinished process with the audience. Due to the absence of an adequate vocabulary which would allow the author to describe and analyze their work, we present a lexicon, consisting of professional terms and images, thus enabling a discourse on this 27-year-old theatre phenomenon.
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Sound Animation, or on the Singing Stone
By Peter KusAbstractThe starting point for the author’s reflection on sound animation is the Egyptian statue of Memnon, the stone that sang at dawn; at first sight, this appears to be an oxymoron, for stone is an allegory of the inanimate, and yet immortal, while voice is the exact opposite, the fleeting sign of life. This opposition has triggered thinking about the life of stone and about the question of whether stone – not unlike musical instruments – has its own soul or if another life sounds through it. The author touches upon cosmological theories and world mythologies, which describe the world and its origin with musical metaphors, as well as the superstring theory in contemporary physics, according to which the vibrations of superstrings determine the properties of particles and forces in nature. Oscillation, then, is an innate property of all things; hence, man is not only a constructor and animator, but must also listen to things and become an echo of their own sounds. In this relationship, the author finds the line separating classical, mainly industrial, instruments from original musical instruments that originate from the “animation” of materials: in the first case, it is the musician who expresses him- or herself, while in the latter case, it is the object that does so; the former instruments are played by musicians, the latter are animated by them. The writer is the author of musical puppet plays in which set design elements, props and puppets enable visual and theatrical expressiveness as well as the performance of music; therefore, his performances are an indivisible blend of puppet animation and music concerts.
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The triumph of the Puppet: the Victory of Death is a Blow to Life. The Movement of Life and Death in the Opus of Silvan Omerzu.
By Tea KovšeAbstractThe puppets of Silvan Omerzu problematise life by staging death. In his 20 years of making puppet shows for adults, the puppet has travelled from the grotesque image, rapid movement and playful violence to the ascetic minimalistic world, both in its image and its movement. Omerzu’s latest show, Salto mortale, depicts the immortality of puppets. This complex puppet world can be described by Das Unheimliche, which best captures the staging of death no matter whether it is carried out in a playful, mysterious or anxious atmosphere. Silvan Omerzu’s puppets show the victory of death or the victory of puppets over death, thus staging our captivity within life.
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Slovenian Puppet Base Jumping
More LessAbstractThe contribution provides a deliberation on the current state of affairs in the field of puppet art in Slovenia. The author of the article is a member of the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre and thus relates her understanding of the state of Slovene puppetry from the subjective viewpoint of a co-creator. The article focuses on understanding the structure of two professional puppet theatres in Slovenia (Ljubljana Puppet Theatre and Puppet Theatre Maribor), as well as independent freelance artists. She stresses the sensitivity in developments in puppetry and care for its comprehensive development.
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The Museum of Puppetry a Ljubljana Castle
By Vesna TeržanAbstractThe recent acquisition of space for the Museum of Puppetry at Ljubljana Castle (on the occasion of the centenary of puppet art in Slovenia) is one of the more important steps towards achieving the goal of finally granting puppet art its proper place among the performing arts as well as in the entire history of art in Slovenia. The greater part of the museum mission has been taken over by Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, wherein they prepared an excellent work project and brought to fruition one of the best museum presentations in Slovenia around. They present the history of Slovenian puppetry at a very high professional level (authors: Ajda Rooss and Nadja Ocepek) and, at the same time, have established that the collection must be studied carefully and properly preserved and restored (Zala Kalan). Thus, the new museum has achieved a perfect balance between fun, play, cultivation and education.
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International Puppet Festival LUTKE 2014
More LessAbstractThe article considers fragments of performances from the Ljubljana International Puppet Festival, especially emphasizing Antigone and Georges Méliès’ Final Trick. It places at its centre the hybridisation of the bodies of puppet and puppeteer as a phenomenon that creates unexpected transitions of form and sensuality – that is, a trans-situation, in which sensual distribution occurs not only among living individuals but also among (animated) objects. A trans-situation allows for a wider space of sensual distribution within the temporary bounds of the performance.
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Bubbling Boundless Creativity
By Mojca RedjkoAbstractThe article focuses on the latest edition of a large puppet festival that has been taking place in Charleville-Mézières since 1961. The top names in world puppetry participate at the biennial festival, whose rich festival happenings and events move from the city’s numerous halls to its streets, squares and even private apartments. In 2015, the main part of the programme consisted of shows and events for adult audiences.
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The “Terrorism” of Puppets. An Attempt at understanding state violence in the arrest of two Spanish puppeteers accused of “promoting terrorism” in a play.
More LessAbstractThe article reports on the arrest and detainment of two Spanish puppeteers for promoting terrorism during their puppet performance at the Carnival in Madrid; it also mentions an anarchistic organization accused of promoting terrorism. While pointing out the various levels of irony involved in this particular incident, the author then outlines the bigger picture of repression in Spain (and across the world) being carried out by way of anti-terrorist politics.
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