Norwegian art collective Verdensteatret’s newest work, And All the Question Marks Started to Sing, is a bewilderingly complex orchestration of animation, object theater, and sound, or what the company has called “an art machine played by performers, musicians, and robots.” Catch one of their performances in New York, Febuary 24th to 27th.
In the high-powered performance, company members “play” and manipulate an intricate array of kinetic sculptures assembled from the refuse of everyday life—bicycle wheels, hand-twisted and soldered scraps of metal cable and levers, lenses, celluloid film strips, obsolete amplifier tubes and other electromechanical contraptions—to create a constantly transforming landscape of deeply poetic images, shadows, and sound.
Bringing artists of different backgrounds together, the work shows Verdensteatret’s fascination with all kinds of animation–the strange and miraculous activity of breathing life into dead objects, stiff figures, and frozen images. These are not the smooth and seamless computer-generated images we have become accustomed to, but rather images forged through an elaborate system of pulleys and gears, the pulse of electricity, the grinding of metal, the labor of human bodies.
For nearly 25 years, Verdensteatret has created original works at the intersection of theater, visual art, and music. Though they are often considered theater, Verdensteatret’s creations have been featured in as many galleries and biennales as black boxes. Verdensteatret riffs on the filmmakers the Quay Brothers and Ladislav Starevich, the automata and mechanical toys of the 19th century, modern kinetic and conceptual sculpture and early electronic music (1920 – 1960), among other influences, to create their own unique hybrid.
And All the Question Marks Started to Sing is the inaugural event of FuturePerfect 2011, a new performance, art & technology initiative in New York City. Produced in partnership with leading national and international cultural institutions, FuturePerfect highlights new hybrid performance practices, media forms, and artistic ideas that emerge as digital technologies evolve and become ubiquitous in contemporary culture.
Additional funding for this program is provided by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Andrew E. and G. Norman Wigeland Fund. This presentation is made possible, in part, by the generous support of Virginia and Tim Millhiser through the David R. White Producers Circle.
FuturePerfect received a generous contribution from Charles and Bonnie Granatir in support of this presentation. Verdensteatret is supported by the Arts Council Norway, and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The live production of And All the Question Marks Started to Sing is a co-production between Verdensteatret,
Theater der Welt, Black Box Teater, BIT Teatergarasjen and Avant Art Festival. Co-Presented with Dance Theater Workshop and Performance Space 122.
Ticket price: $ 20
Coffee and Conversation Feb 24 at 6:30 pm with Vallejo Gantner
Post-Show Talk Feb 25 with Vallejo Gantner and Wayne Ashley
http://futureperfectfestival.org/