During four months, a figure had been circling the Teatro Fundamenta Nuove in Venice. It was engaged in arguments about stage directions in German, Italian and English, which were broadcast over loudspeakers in the alleys and at the dock in front of the cemetery island Isola Di San Michele. At times this figure, robed in a cloak, acquiesced to a story that demanded the stereotypical beggar. At other times, it left the orbit of this character, because its promised paradise could only by reached - in the guise of an undercover agent - by destroying the evidence accumulated by police hostile to the Roma people on the cemetery island. The actor/actress, however, insists on handing over the data CD to the press, since it documents the European-wide web of state racism towards travellers. In order to achieve this, however, it will be necessary not only to confront the three directors in charge and their respective scripts, but also the stereotypes produced by the figure’s own voice…
«Deviare – Vier Agenten – Part of a Movie» took place daily in four half-hour repeat loops between 1st May and 3rd October 2011 as Live Performances around the Teatro Fundamenta Nuove. Viewers and passers-by could hear and follow the performance via loudspeakers in the alleys and on the quay around the theatre, including its entrée and the dressing room. The video screen in the theatre’s foyer displayed the conventional previews of excerpts from the performance, yet in addition showed the involvement of random passers-by in the events taking place: the three figures as directors - in Skype-like fashion - were not only observing the spectacle as it was unfolding under their guidance; rather, and just as directly, they were observing the observers, the viewers. The threshold between the exhibition and the everyday city resp. tourist life in Venice was kept as low as possible in «Deviare – Vier Agenten – Part of a Movie» as an installative dramatization: whoever encounters the play in a first alley as an audio drama, was soon confronted with a figure trying to read hidden clues in a city map or, dressed in a coat, drawing petrol from a gas station to torch gondolas… the interaction of video file and performance thus gave rise to a distinct medial dialogue. The casting of the four figures was rotated over the four months, giving each actor/actress the possibility to become an agent on the ground or one of the directing voices.
This project formed part of the official Swiss program for the Biennale in Venice, curated by Andrea Thal, «Chewing the Scenery»
Languages
German, English and Italian
Performances
Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Venezia, as part of the Swiss contribution Chewing the Scenery by Andrea Thal | Dates: 1. Mai bis 3. Oktober 2011, täglich | Duration: 2 hours (each 30 minutes, four times in a loop)
Cast
Text, direction, installation: Tim Zulauf | play: Meret Hottinger, Christoph Rath, Ursula Reiter and Samuel Streiff | translations: SUBTEXT – Katharina Bürgi (Italian), Linda Cassens Stoian (English) | camera, steadicam: Sebastian Geret | focus: Philipp Künzli, Björn Detre | cut: Guido Henseler | sound: Ramon Orza | costumes: Zuzana Ponicanova | make-up: Connie Sacchi, Tanja Maria Koller | studio: FTK Zürich, Letzi Studio
Publication
Andrea Thal (publ.): «Chewing the Scenery», 3rd edition, edition fink, Zurich 2011. www.editionfink.ch
Videofilm /Installation
Two synchronised HD tracks, colour, sound, duration 2’12’’. German, English and Italian
Supported by The Swiss Federal Office of Culture, BAK
Photographs: Bernadette Paassens, Andrea Thal | Videostills: Sebastian Geret, Franziska Koch