2015 » Poland » Student Section

The Boundaries of Landscape

This project deals with the concept of imagined scenography and a related notion of landscape in Western theory, art and literature. The space as a whole is divided into several sound territories based on texts representing different approaches to ideas of landscape, memory and collective history. Small groups of the audience are invited to explore the space with headphones. The composition of each sound spot depends on the function and length of the text. Participants are able to hear sounds assigned according to the specific position in which they are located. The performativity of each text or soundscape lies not in its representation, but in the imagination of each and every 'viewer', who is invited to not only create individual experiences, but also to question his/her role as a member of the audience.

There is only one text that can be heard during the whole performance: Description of the Painting by Heiner Mueller. The text raises questions about perception, different points of view and the possibility to ‘frame the whole picture’ in the sense of collective experience and common history. Other texts deal with the experience of public and private space, with imagination and perception, but also with the expectations of visitors to installations or museums who either experience a work of art as something given to the or becomes a part of an artistic installation. Here, we would like to present elements of theatre and artistic installation in relation to viewers who are encouraged to create visual content by themselves. Through interaction with other members of audience one can also create a small-scale collective experience and break the distinctiveness of an individual experience. On creating entry opportunities for other viewers, without headphones, a clear, though invisible, division is revealed between the part of the audience that is 'part of the installation' and the part that is outside and only observing the performance. For those ‘outside’, the audience becomes performers and vice versa. Visitors must seek the boundaries of the designed territory through their own experiences and their interaction with others. This process might bring up questions concerning the current politics of theatre and production of installations that presuppose artistic sovereignty. Material is provided to members of the audience, as well as the space, but there is no representation, there is just imagination. The gaze that used to be directed towards nature, a piece of art, or a body on the stage now turns towards empty walls and other audience members.