Image
A black circle of filtered light projected between the wall and floor of a black box studio.

A Possibility of an Abstraction

Germaine Kruip
Saturday, December 6, 2014 7PM
Theater

“There must be a kind of painting totally free of the dependence on the figure—or object—which, like music, illustrates nothing, tells no story, and launches no myth. Such painting would simply evoke the incommunicable kingdoms of the spirit, where dream becomes thought, where line becomes existence.”

—Michel Seuphor from Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector

A Possibility of an Abstraction is an EMPAC-commissioned production that transforms the theatrical space into a field of cinematic experience. It is a play of perception, where shadow, reflection, architecture, and stage become the characters in a filmic experience created in the moment itself. Recalling pre-cinematic traditions of shadow play, and what Ken Jacobs termed paracinema (denoting experimental film practice from the 1960s in which films lacked material or mechanical elements), Kruip creates an atmospheric film-like effect without actually using film, accomplished by manipulating light across the proscenium stage that serves as a stand-in for the screen.

Shifting between the cinematic, the theatrical, and the sculptural, A Possibility of an Abstraction creates a meditative space at the edges of our perception with optical illusions and the passage of time. A Possibility of an Abstraction marks the artist’s renewed engagement with theatrical technology and dramaturgy. Following winning the Prix de Rome in 2000, Kruip turned away from scenography to concentrate on visual arts, producing works that brought the theatrical elements of light, temporality, and the stage into a new architectural scale at galleries and museums. Often manipulating daylight with moving geometric sculptures and simple framing devices, her artworks transform the architecture they inhabit, turning each location into a sensual but abstract stage.

Main Image: A Possibility of an Abstraction in the theater in 2014.

Media

Dates + Tickets

Performance
Commission
A Possibility of an Abstraction
Germaine Kruip
Saturday 6
7:00 PM
December 2014
Discipline
Contemporary Performance
Visual Art

Season

Curator
Production Credits

Composer: Hahn Rowe

TECHNICAL COLLABORATORS

Lighting Design: Laura Mroczkowski

Dramaturgy: Bart Van den Eynde

Technical Assistance: Johan van der Woel

Funding

A Possibility of An Abstraction is supported by Mondriaan Fund