FAILING TO LEVITATE IN MY STUDIO

Introduction

Shut up in his studio and detached from the world, a performer uses his body as material and as an exper- imental field, until the irreversible dissolution of the Self and the exhausting of words in a space which he constantly and vainly attempts to inhabit – a non-place. The stage space: an enclosed two-storey structure inside which the performer films himself and the space like another Krapp. The internal place and self are rendered, in a process of inexhaustible reflection, as images which are filmed and projected in real time Bruce Nauman onto the structure’s outer surfaces. The projection renders both place and self intangible – spectral. The proliferation of these images render the fundamental elements of the Beckettian universe theatrically present: person and space/body and time. Until they are negated. Sitting on either side of the structure, watching the character’s actions through its openings and the projections onto the walls, the viewers are invited to partake of a clandestine and ultimately illusory viewing. For it soon becomes clear they share the same condition: enclosed in a second antechamber, a vainly-waiting room of their own, they become view- ing subjects and viewed objects of their own spectres – and thus of an absence.

Representing absence: the production’s materials

The production is based on prose pieces by Samuel Beckett and engages with visual artists like Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Terry Fox, Absalon, Joseph Beuys, Gordon Matta-Clark, Rachel Whiteread and others – artists who, sometimes deliberately, some- times unconsciously, reference the Beckettian uni- verse, exploring through their work the limits of the self, of space and of language.

“Yet I speak of an art turning from it in disgust, weary of puny exploits, weary of pretending to be able, of being able, of doing a little better the same old thing, of going a little further along a dreary road.

And preferring what?

The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.”

(Tal Coat, Three Dialogues)

The body of absence: between the Ego and the non-Ego

“…I’m not outside, I’m inside, I’m in something, I’m “isn’t” but “was” or “became” resounds less as a tri- shut up: the silence is outside. Nothing but this voice umphal awareness and more as a desperate attempt and the silence all round. No need of walls? Yes, we to retain some minimal link between the “I” that is must have walls: I need walls, good and thick. I need a speaking and his body. prison (I was right), for me alone. I’ll go there now, I’ll In the meantime: put me in it. I’m there already: I’ll start looking for me The person keeps moving on. His life is composed now, I’m there somewhere. It won’t be I – no matter, I’ll of memories; his now is a series of unremarkable say it’s I. Perhaps it will be I. Perhaps that’s all they’re happenings, like: waiting for (there they are again) to give me quittance. “…sounds of the body on its way, of the bare feet Waiting for me to say I’m someone, to say I’m some- on the wet ground, of the laboured breathing, of where, to put me out, into the silence...” the body striking against the walls or squeezing (The Unnamable) through the narrows…”. His land: a “ruinstrewn land”, of a piece with his The person waiting. Waiting for an interlocutor – the inner, entirely insentient world. Other who will allow him to be seen, to be addressed, His words: a manifesto for the dissolution of to speak. But interlocutors always turn out to be speech, in which language can no longer either name deceitful: all there is is the image of the self – and or tame. that is ultimately deceitful, absent, too. His place: a landscape of intransigent stasis. His His discourse is shattered so it can mimic movements are jerky and, by necessity, his thoughts silence; the inwardness of the monologue, rather are, too. He becomes a skull where dust is shovelled, than revealing a self, sheds light on its absence; the then shovelled again, for all eternity. addressing of the Other, to the extent that s/he exists, rather than serving some form of communication, “For to end yet again skull alone in a dark place pent exposes its impossibility and insubstantiality; the bowed on a board to begin” narrative flow grows confused: before, now, and after (For to end yet again) are crushed together in the same duration. The way in which the person confirms that he “is”, or that he

The space of absence: building already exists, he has to remember it. It’s con- structed out of his very past. An architecture of time. An antechamber An inorganic, amorphous space. A space- parenthesis, an intermittent space. A space of absence and presence synthesized out of silence and sound. The only way to grasp it is to destroy and rebuild it A construction in an industrial space. One space constantly in an effort to avoid nothingness, non- within another. existence. A heterotopian architecture. An abandoned space, undefined, without quali- An unstable, eternally displaced space. A space ties, neutral, urgent, at a turning point. An ephemeral traversed by events which are subject to external architecture. forces he cannot control. Paradoxical, hybrid spaces. A ruined space. Ruins of the body, an unbroken A brutal, sadistic architecture. fall, a state of suspension. The structure’s final col- Intense spatial proximity. The space exhausts lapse indefinitely postponed. Parasites. Architecture’s body and spirit. The place is actually an extension return to its spacial quality. of the character. A condition of rest or surrender. He Beyond any geographical point in space. His space is so powerfully attached to the space that he ends is nowhere to be found, he himself is no place. There’s up merging with it. Swamp, mud. Waiting material. no fixed point for orientation. An anomalous percep- Excavation. The ditch will be his home. An example tion of space. For him, outside is a snippet of informa- of a chthonic architecture. tion, a static picture, a painted landscape stuck on the A womb or an urn for his ashes. The origin of window. the world or a condition prior to its dissolution. He is An antechamber in orbit. A transitory space, trapped inside himself. Shut up inside his skull. He devoid of memory. The character’s dual movement: floats, is suspended. A white sphere without holes, attracted to and repulsed by the centre at one and without openings. A bizarre architectural entity. A the same time. Off-centred and dispersed. At the world unto itself. Undefined, metaphysical. A space orbit’s centre point: the ideal room. to wait – for an endless end. A pulsating antechamber. An archetypal move- An abysmal space. A dichotomy. A virtual projec- ment. The repetition of the same motif or the same tion of himself. He is suspended between inside and sound sends it to a second level of consciousness. It outside. Physical and meta-physical. He observes his takes the place of silence. A state of lethargy, a spec- own doubling, himself in the hereafter. Outside, zero tral state. The space forever slipping away and visibility. The void. A dual non-existence. The last returning. A space-speaker. room. An antechamber-labyrinth. A prison and a trap at the same time. He is lost. He tries to structure the space, Esteban Restrepo Restrepo (Anti)chambres: Les architec- to comprehend it, to repeat the route. Memory. The tures fragiles dans l’œuvre de Samuel Beckett (Selection).

REVIEWS

It was clear from the start that Kourtakis two-storey construction with a biblical with the atmospheric and decisive video [...] I saw it twice, and liked it even more hadn’t set his sights on simply refer- crack running vertically down its middle, work of Jérémie Bernaert, an associate the second time. When it’s staged again, encing Beckett, as so many others have delivers an aphoristic discourse, an of Julien Gosselin, filmed in real time on I’ll see it again. And you should, too. Take done; what he wanted was to convey a “internal” monologue, studded with frag- a handheld camera and projected onto note! This isn’t something anyone should highly specific, solitary and personal ments from Beckett’s prose. the construction’s walls, the lighting of miss. This was an event! condition for an engaged audience to Sitting on either side of the structure, Scott Bolman, who works with Robert bear witness to. the audience watch his image – filmed Wilson, playing impressive games with Yorgos Sarigiannis Most of those who saw Kourtakis’ live either by the video artist, Jérémie light and shade, and with the music by To Tetarto Koudouni, 21/07/2017 production will talk about it and their Bernaert, or by the performer, capturing Dimitris Kamarotos utterly in harmony descriptions will bring it back to life himself on film like another Krapp – with the rest. • over and over again. But I want to take projected onto the walls. “Failing to Levitate in My Studio” was it one step further. Because with an [...] Dimitris Kourtakis’ sensational pro- perhaps the best possible theatrical Samuel Beckett thanked God he wasn’t undertaking like this one, Kourtakis and duction takes root deep in the Beckettian epilogue to this year’s Festival. a critic, and thus under no obligation Servetalis, Kafka and Beckett, ultimately universe. to write about Beckett the writer. For, provide the starting point, nothing more. Georgia Oikonomou truly, how do you write about someone Their levitator points towards a deep and Eleni Petasi tospirto.net, 21/07/17 who took writing in extremis? And how inner train of thought about man and clickatlife.gr, 01/08/17 do you direct for the stage a writer of his fate. Which is why Kourtakis’ perfor- • such stature, such darkness, ontologi- mance illuminates with its darkness and • cal agony and unfeigned compassion speaks from within its silence. Behold Aris Servetalis, an ideal Beckettian figure for the human race? Without pretending the great Mystery: when Beckett uttered Dimitris Kourtakis’ performance, “Failing but also an ideal Beckettian performer to have an answer, Dimitris Kourtakis, his famous “Try again, fail again, fail to Levitate in My Studio”, is a painstak- – one of the playwright’s tragic, desperate taking fragments from Beckett’s prose, better”, we know he meant the condition ingly detailed on-stage investigation, a “clowns” whose unsmiling, “inexpressive” attempts something hugely significant of human irony, something like “if you try treatise on the fluidity and multiplicity face calls to mind Buster Keaton – grabs given the norms of directors and festi- again, you’ll fail again”... of the Self, the complexity of defining it the text by the scruff of the neck and, with vals: he stages something extra-ordinary. And yet, what do we take away? His in words in a Beckettian universe which his trademark physicality – not inappropri- Which is to say he attempts something as courage. What’s important isn’t that we exhorts, “You must go on. I can’t go on. ate here – crawls, slithers, hangs, clings, important as it is experimental, as daring failed. What’s important is that we will I’ll go on.” climbs, slides, teeters and grabs from wall as it is modest, as uniquely conceived as try again. Out of the failure to levitate, we to wall, step to step, prop to prop – some- it is implemented. recall flight. Lydia Trigoni thing like Gregor Samsa, the cockroach in artic.gr, 19/07/17 the Kafkaesque Metamorphosis – trans- Iliana Dimadi Gregory Ioannides lating his existential despair into panting Athinorama, 19/07/17 Efimerida ton Syntakton, 24/07/17 • movement, an asthmatic delivery, a body twisted, angular, inverted. No, he doesn’t • Dimitris Kourtakis was inspired and manage to levitate. But the performance has created a totally original, thoroughly does – it soars. With unrivalled sensitivity, taking hesi- sound production based on the solid With this performance, Dimitris Kourtakis tant steps and perilous levitations, dramaturgy he worked on with Eleni – to paraphrase Beckett – “tried again, Aris Servetalis, boxed up in a derelict, Papazoglou and Anastasia Tzellou, succeeded again, succeeded better”.

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Concept, Direction, Set Design Dimitris Kourtakis Dramaturgy Dimitris Kourtakis, Eleni Papazoglou, Anastasia Tzellou Video Jérémie Bernaert Music Dimitris Kamarotos Lighting Design Scott Bolman Artistic Collaboration Efi Birba

Performance Aris Servetalis

Duration: 1 hour and 10' BIOGRAPHIES Dimitris Kourtakis Jérémie Bernaert Dimitris Kamarotos

Born in Athens in 1972. Following studies He holds a Master’s Degree in Information Having studied Music, Economics and in Music (Ecole Normale de Musique de and Communication Science and coordi- Informatics in , he continued his Paris), he direct for the theater, staging nated the multimedia projects for Culture studies in Paris, focusing on composition, Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Arabian Night for Comune – Scène Nationale, 2001–2014. electro-acoustic music and the clarinet. He Notos Theatre and Kafeneion (a synthesis In this capacity, and as a photographer continued his post-graduate studies at the of ancient texts) for the . He and video artist, he has been seconded to IRCAM, exploring the use of artificial intel- studied under Krystian Lupa (Lausanne, numerous artistic companies during their ligence as a compositional tool. In Greece, Strasbourg) and has collaborated with residencies at the Fabrique Théâtrale to he has created and directed contemporary Dimiter Gotscheff – taking charge of the create on-stage video set-ups. Since 2003, and experimental music ensembles and chorus in the Persians ( Festival) Jérémie Bernaert has been an associate worked as a research supervisor at the – and with Roula Pateraki. He has also artist of Guy Alloucherie’s HVDZ company, Centre for Contemporary Music Research written music for theatre and dance produc- participating in the making of videos for (CCMR-KSYME). Through music composi- tions, and has collaborated inter alia with several projects including La Tournée des tion and new way of performing, he actively the Dance Theatre on the National Theater Grands Ducs (with KompleXKapharnaüM), participates in an exploratory approach of Northern Greece, the Heidelberg Theatre, Ba se 11/19, Les Atomics, Aimer si fort and La to the function of music in theatre, with a the International Theatre Institute (ITI), and Brique. In addition, he co-created HVDZ’s focus on the common reactions and vocal the Volksbühne, . Works of his have Veillées project, which is now in its 40th functions of the choral ensembles. He has been performed at international festivals rendition. In 2011, he directed a medium- created music for over 120 theatre perfor- including the Lyon Dance Biennale, , length film,Brief Encounter, which he mances, collaborating with the National and in Brazil, Singapore, , , co-wrote with Mike Lister, funded by the Theatre of Greece, private theatres and Portugal and Israel. He lives and works in British Council. He was involved in creating international festivals. Notable recent Paris and Athens. Naz for the Sens Ascensionnels theatre productions in which he has participated company, and regularly collaborates with with original music and sound dramaturgy Thomas Piasecki’s Spoutnik Theatre. He include: Kafeneion (Athens Festival, 2008), undertook the video work for the Fous à Dying as a country (Théâtre de l’Odéon, réaction production of Waiting for Godot. 2009), Hercules Furens (Ancient Theatre In 2016, he created with Pierre Martin of Epidaurus, 2011), Phèdre (Comédie- the video for Julien Gosselin’s 2666 and Française, 2013), The Circle of the Square for Thomas Piasecki’s Je suis la honte de (Festival d’Avignon, 2014), The Blind (Athens la famille. Since 2014, he has conducted Festival, 2015). several photographic meanderings (déam- bulations photographiques) – ephemeral photographic visual performances in urban space – during pilgrimages to Avignon, Lille, Brussels, Montreal, Quebec and elsewhere. Scott Bolman Efi Birba Aris Servetalis

He is a Brooklyn-based designer and Born in Athens in 1976. She holds graduate Born in Athens in 1976. He studied at the D. educator working in a diverse array of and post-graduate degrees from the Athens Fotiades drama school. Since 1997, he has performance mediums, including theatre, School of Fine Arts (Digital Art). Since 2008, participated in numerous theatrical and dance, music and . she has mainly been active in the field of dance-theatre performances. His collabo- Recent credits: Failing to Levitate in My the performative arts, theatre, perfor- rations include: 2, and Still Life with Studio (Athens and Epidaurus Festival), mance and video art. In the theatre, she Dimitris Papaioannou, Untitled, The Double, Noises Off (Chautauqua Theater Company), has directed Untitled ( Our Beautiful Hands and Richard II with Efi ’s Der Sandmann (Dusseldorf Foundation, 2009), The Double (Fyodor Birba, Mercier et Camier and The Clockwork Festspielhaus), Anna Christie (The Wild Dostoyevsky, Roes Theatre, 2014/15), Our Orange with Yiannis Kakleas. In film, he Project), The May Queen (Playmakers Rep) Beautiful Hands (Efthimis Filippou, Roes has collaborated with Giorgos Lanthimos in and Wilderness (En Garde Arts). Theatre, 2015/16) and Richard II (William Kinetta and Alps, with Babis Makridis in L, Selected theatre: Marcus Gardley’s The Shakespeare, Roes Theatre, 2016/17. She with Christos Georgiou in Small Crime, and Box (The Foundry), The Profane, Intimate has participated in exhibitions. She is a with Angelos Frantzis in A Dog’s Dream. Apparel, The May Queen, The Romeo & Juliet co-founder of the Rēs Ratio Network, an He has also worked in television and radio. Project, Fifty Ways (Chautauqua Theater artistic collaboration network. He is a co-founder of the Rēs Ratio Company), Waiting for Godot (Benaki Network, an artistic collaboration network. Museum, Athens) and Urban Renewal (FIAF, La Cité International). Selected opera and concert: Missy Mazzoli’s Songs from the Uproar (The Kitchen, REDCAT), Darcy James Argue’s Brooklyn Babylon (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Holland Festival), Jonathan Berger’s Visitations (Prototype Festival) and John Musto’s Later the Same Evening (Manhattan School of Music). Selected dance work: New Dance Partners (Kansas City) with Robert Moses, Amy Seiwart and Penny Saunders, Shen Wei’s performance for Zhang Huan’s Q Confucious exhibit (Rockbund Museum, Shanghai), the DJ Spooky/Corey Baker collaboration Coup de Foudre (Guggenheim NYC) and Shen Wei Dance Arts’ Map (Lincoln Center Festival). With Robert Wilson: Zinnias (Peak Performances/Nuits des Fourvière), The Odyssey (National Theatre of Greece/Piccolo Teatro di Milano) and KOOL (Guggenheim NYC/Akademie der Kunst, Berlin).

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