Camila Caiza Duque Share Program and Why Theatre? MFA in Scenography 2015 – 2016 Both sharing and participating are indispensable tools among the artistic community, not only to show one´s personal art to the world, but also to get familiar with the work that is being produced by other artists around us. By this means an artist can be able to expand his or her perspective or even to confirm or question his or her own personal artistic statement. Therefore, it is relevant to observe and analyze with a critical point of view the work that is being presented to us, but also to identify what kind of relationship is being created to connect the real and the virtual world. Based on this statement I would like to present my personal reflection about two of the events to which I assisted as part of the sharing and Why theater? Program. The two performances are: First, ERF by Boukje Schweigman and secondly Het land Nod by F.C. Bergman. I chose these two performances because I consider that both of them have quite different approaches to relate reality and fiction within the frame of a performance. “I exist, is due to the confluence of all the lives of my ancestors. I am a small but significant element in a larger whole.” (Boukje Schweigman). This statement is the main reflection at the core of the performance developed by the Dutch director Boukje Schweigman. During the course of the performance, this concept is being constructed through semiotics creating a consistent metaphor about the process in which human beings move across life carrying all their familiar memories and thus their historical background, and how it builds up their
own lives. In addition, personally, I consider that it also reflects a critical perspective on how human lives are already constructed even before they were born. I believe this is shown by contrast during the performance, since while almost all the performers walked through a similar path wearing similar clothes and acting in a similar way, just some of them acted different by dancing or moving around with distinct manners. But those who were different followed a different path than the rest of them, even though at the end of the road they all got to the same endpoint. I found this performance quite interesting and inspiring due to the fact that it creates a deep reflection about the conception of life and how human beings are not isolated creations, but an ensemble of all the lives behind them, but also considering that in spite of having a familiar, historical and cultural background human beings can also create their own living paths. Regarding the aesthetics of the performance, the visual language used and also the audio elements helped to create a clear and appropriate environment of meditation and reflection, and also the natural scenography of the woods was a pertinent element to frame a metaphor of historical and familiar heritage. In a different artistic approach, Het land Nod by F.C. Bergman reproduced pieces from reality by mimesis to connect the spectators with the environment of the interior of a museum hall. However, I believe that the essence of the performance was not to duplicate a space but to represent the different human interactions with it. Therefore, even though the event contained parts created by mimesis, I would not consider it an absolute representation, due to the fact that it also contained fragments of absurdity guided by sarcastic moments represented by the performers. I think that these sarcastic moments; for example, the man getting naked in front of a famous painting in the interior of a museum or the
technician that would not be able to get the painting out of the hall; had the intention to connect the meaning of the space with the absurdity of human reactions in a specific space. This connection was meant to be achieved by constructing a space in which the spectator would feel himself as a visitor of the museum, but the arrangement of the space did not allowed all spectators to be related to this feeling which obviously changed in a great part the perspective of all the performance. Therefore, the visual language of the event was not clear for all the spectators, and also I got the feeling that there were too many different situations that were not connected in an appropriate way to create a specific reflection behind the representation. Both performances had different methods or ways to relate reality with the world of performance. But the main difference that I found between them, was the clarity of the reflection behind the action. In the performance created by Boukje Schweigman the reflection guided all the elements that composed the event and people as spectators could follow it, but in Het land Nod the reflection was not clear during all the performance. Hence, I would say that I consider that my personal artistic aim is to generate a strong reflection that can guide all the elements within a performance.