Editorial / Sceno-Architecture Tongues of Stone: Performing the Hidden City

This document is an integral part of ERA21 magazine, No. 03/2011 “Sceno-Architecture”. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent from ERA21 magazine (www.era21.cz). Hardcopy of ERA21 magazine, No. 03/2011 “Sceno-Architecture” (full Czech version with images) you can order at: [email protected]. patterns of urban occupation. The work was created for a diverse public on the Page 5 move, who either happened upon fragmentary performances embedded in the folds of the city’s fabric or wore headphones immersing them in the multiple voices of the work’s soundworld: that of the ancient mythological woman lost Editorial / Sceno-Architecture in time; the migrant woman musing on a pre-European occupation; and the Dorita Hannah contemporary woman mapping the city onto her skin. Scenography—a word that goes back as far as Aristotle, Vitruvius and 1 Murray Street Underground: Place of absence, place of flight Serlio—once provided the bridge between real and imagined worlds by utilizing Waves of commuters shape fluctuating rhythms of space, filling up and the perspectival image to unify art, architecture and theatre. In the 16th century emptying out the concourse and platforms below. A blindfolded bride, (Procne it was celebrated as a mimetic practice that integrated the science and craft from Ovid’s story of Tereus in Metamorphosis) stands on the platform, she feels of construction, scenery and painting into a combined stage and auditorium, her way to the concourse and traces the indentations of words chiseled like which in turn influenced the planning of buildings, cities and landscapes. braille into the sandstone wall. Moving beyond stage scenery scenography came to permeate a range of fields from urban and architectural design to fine arts and public spectacle. However, 2 Murray Street Mall: Place of ritual over the next four centuries, a unified world picture was philosophically called Five women, a chorus of river runners, in sky blue dresses hold into doubt, challenging and destabilizing the role theatre played in architecture. buckets of water. At the entrance to the Underground they stand, crouch and Modernism’s distrust of representation and its emphasis on authenticity squat before fleeing up Murray Street water spilling across the pavements as demoted the role of the “theatrical“, commonly defined as false or exaggerated they run. in architectural discourse. However, with recent concepts such as “event-space“ and “spatial scripting“, “situated technologies“ and “behavioral structures“, 3 Wolf Lane : Redefining the Civic through Poetic Frenzy architecture as a performative medium has returned to the discursive stage; Pedestrians share this narrow, intimate back route with parking allowing us to consider it an active and activating entity within our daily lives and departing cars and are confronted by the pungent smells of decaying and creative constructions. This issue on contemporary scenographies returns rubbish and the omnipresent signage of a regulated city. Into this altered place to the broad and dynamic role performance can play in the built environment; five women with red hair covering their faces (the furies) hunker, pant, crouch from sites as active public events (performative architecture); to spaces and shudder, drawing the audience down the length of the lane with a looping specifically designed to house the event (performance architecture); to walk. aesthetic events that integrate art and architecture (performing architecture). 4 Munster Lane: Place of Myth Between buildings, in a compressed narrow laneway, a sequence Page 16—19 of vignettes unfold: A woman labours under the weight of water held in sacs attached to her body; another (Philomela) lowers a long ribbon of red fabric towards the ground and gestures mutely; the river runners undo their Tongues of Stone: Performing headscarves and wash them in water spilt from their buckets. Hanging their scarves on the wall the audience reads a series of messages as the red ink the Hidden City writing bleeds into the paving stones. Carol Brown, Christophe Canato 5 Behind His Majesty’s Theatre: Place of (Her)Stories The audience follows the river of Philomela’s red satin dress down Every stone in this city the backstage lane of the Edwardian His Majesty’s Theatre. Five women occupy Will become a tongue to tell my story a fire escape with red doors, each holding an artifact of history and re-staging Ovidius a reference to the histories of Australian women. Tongues of Stone (9—16th April 2011) was a site-senstitive 6 The Atrium: A Place of Contemplation dance-architecture event staged within Perth’s urban environment. Tributaries Was there a river here of stories (embodied and spoken) inhabited a range of locales, presenting an In tongues of this land? alternative itinerary to the familiar and habitual patterns of urban occupation. Audrey Fernandez-Satar The work was created for a diverse public on the move, who either happened Revolving doors slow the metabolic rate of audience as they enter upon fragmentary performances embedded in the folds of the city’s fabric the air-conditioned environment of The Atrium, home to the State Government or wore headphones immersing them in the multiple voices of the work’s Insurance Office. Deep stainless steel pools of water form watery stages for soundworld: that of the ancient mythological woman lost in time; the migrant standing dancers and sequence towards the central floor area of a glass-roofed woman musing on a pre-European occupation; and the contemporarywoman internal courtyard. Hanging creepers, an interior waterfall, multiple floors and mapping the city onto her skin. high-level balconies form a vertiginous architecture. City as Site and Situation 7 Westralia Square: A Place of Encounters The city of Perth—associated with the mining industry that taps Westralia Square is situated on the thoroughfare to the Perth Bus into its surrounding geology—was once composed of wetlands that ran from Station and neighboring office developments off St George’s Terrace. A raised the river westward to the sea. They provided fluid gathering grounds for the walkway opens to a columned glass and steel canopied space. Two women in indigenous Noongar people. However, with the coming of other peoples the land bridal dresses, one gagged the other blindfolded, float across the floor and was reclaimed and sedimented into the sand, stone, and concrete of a modern meet, becoming entangled in a strange dance of holds, caresses and sudden metropolis, covering over diverse and numerous histories. In paying attention to drops. On the periphery of the site the furies roam and cluster moving with the resonances of these histories, Tongues of Stone is a performance meditation stuttered convulsive thrusts of tense limbs. on the invisible stories of place, reconceiving Perth through a choreography of an imagined other city. 8 Ernst and Young Building Plaza: Place of meeting Tongues of Stone (9—16th April 2011) was staged within Perth’s In front of the glass façade of the Ernst and Young Building a trio urban environment. Tributaries of stories (embodied and spoken) inhabited unfolds between three women, the bride Procne, her sister Philomela and a range of sites presenting an alternative itinerary to the familiar and habitual a woman who struggles to speak. 1 #03 2011 Sceno-Architecture 9 Ghost Gum Trees: Place of Metamorphosis three turntables are synchronized to rotate slowly at slightly different speeds. Yellow chairs placed amidst the gum trees become micro-stages Changing orbits cause the trees to occasionally brush against one another or for the chorus of river runners who release their limbs into the air with ecstatic open up a wide void in the grove while the texture of dappled light and shade tosses and extensions of wing-like arms. They leave their chairs to remove is in constant play. The experience is disorienting. From a vantage point on their dresses and their coats in the trees. These flutter in the wind as their bare a spinning platform, the context appears to shift. From terra firma, the trees bodies are seen weaving a pathway in front of the Perth Convention Centre to uncannily animate around and past you. the discarded red length of dress and, holding it like a dead monstrous serpent or mutilated tongue, exit from view. Page 25—27 Page 20—24 City Lounge, St. Gallen, Switzerland Diller Scofidio + Renfro Carlos Martinez, Pipilotti Rist The New York-based office lead by Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Even before setting foot in St Gallen’s redesigned bank quarter, Scofidio, and Charles Renfro is known for its interdisciplinary approach to a blazing red, surprisingly soft floor covering made of granulated rubber boldly architecture as event-space; ranging from choreographic cenographies on attracts the visitor’s attention, embodying a welcoming gesture that breaks up stage; to performative installations in public space, including the revolving the once introverted, heterogeneous character of the district. A collaboration trees of Arbores Laetae; to built environments, such as the High Line and between architect, Carlos Martinez, and artist, Pipilotti Rist, St Gallen‘s City Lincoln Centre in NYC. Lounge unifies this once fissured quarter. By utilizing an urban carpet and other spatial interventions, such as lighting sculptures and graphic signage, Lincoln Center Public Spaces And Infoscape; they have brough the outside in and the inside out to create a convivial Redesign Of Public Spaces; New York, NY 2009 atmosphere for the public. The Lincoln Center has become an icon inextricably linked with New York. Its ensemble of buildings and public spaces are the product of a group One of the main elements of St Gallen’s redesigned Raiffeisen of prominent architects including Gordon Bunshaft, Eero Saarinen, Wallace quarter is revealed even before you set foot in it: a blazing red, surprisingly soft Harrison and Philip Johnson.

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