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Static Theater #1: Those That Have Been Left Behind

STATIC THEATER  is a concept I initiated in 2014 and has been developed into two full scale performances.

Static Theater explores the crossover between visual arts and theatre, as well as carefully examining the boundaries between performance and exhibition. The concept is to challenge the central role of performers on stage which leads to the question: what is the essence of performance as a live art? Contrary to conventional forms of theater, static theater does not involve any actors and bodies.Instead, on stage there are different forms of art: paintings, photos, sculptures, found objects, texts, videos, audios. Moreover, the artworks on stage are consistently static, never moving. What is constantly moving is the audience's perception of the artworks, and time. This is achieved through the composition of the lighting design, the sound installation, and the shifts between what can be seen on stage, and what can be seen through live video projections of the art works lively filmed by a video camera. Instead of presenting a certain subject from only the director's perspective or base on a fixed script, static theatre invites artists from different background to interpret the subject initiated by the director and express it in any art form (except for performing on stage). The artworks will be selected and composed by the director into an integrated performance. Static Theater works with a clear beginning and end. The fixed duration and orchestrated flow and dynamic by the director is essential for static theater to be perceived as a performance rather than an exhibition. This differs from installation art and exhibitions, where the audience can freely compose their own time to experience the artworks.

Premiere
May.3rd, 2015, Studio USF, Bergen
Tour
Beijing NLGX Performing Art festival, Jul. 2016. Penghao Theater.
Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai(McaM), time TBC.
What is those that have been left behind ?
Photo Gallery

Those that have been left behind” is about time. The theme is

originated deeply in the personal experience of me. In the last ten years, I have been studying, working and living in different countries, moving from cities to cities: Beijing, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Nice, Brussels, Rome and Bergen.

 

“Every time I did packing to move to a new place, the

things I used to collect - the tickets of the performances, the brochure of museums, the notes I made, the papers I drafted, had to be thrown away and left behind my new life”. However, instead of presented only from director’s point of view, this performance invites 9 artists with different background to express their thoughts about this theme with their artworks.

 

What are those that left behind? Are those gone or they actually still carried by us in certain way? Do they appear again and again in our life in another way? Did they really exist or not? From which perspective we look at those that have been left behind? 

 

I use three strategies which reflect my own thoughts and perception of time - Time lag, Déjà vu and transitoriness to construct the performance, connect the artworks and guide the audience to go through the performance.

Co-produced by BIT teatergarasjen, BEK (Bergen Electronic Art Center)

Funding body: Art Council of Norway, Bergen Municipality, Fond for Lyd org Bilde (Fund for image and sound)

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