wo > vr 13:00 > 18:00
& een uur voor begin van de voorstellingen
Het kunstenaarsduo Katrin Lock en Tim Brotherton pakt fors uit op deze festivaleditie. Naast grafisch en fotografisch werk staat immers ook de internationale première van een nieuwe film op het programma. Een heuse trilogie geïnspireerd op het emblematische literaire avant-gardewerk ‘Dr Faustus Lights the Lights’, een radicaal en enigmatisch opera-libretto(!) van Gertrude Stein. De verschillende onderdelen van de trilogie werden gefilmd in Johannesburg, Berlijn en... uw eigenste Beursschouwburg. Drie verschillende locaties omdat het in een alsmaar geglobaliseerder wereld nog altijd zinvol en belangrijk blijft plaatselijke eigenheden aan te voelen en in kaart te brengen. En dit werk van Stein omdat het handelt over universele thema’s als verraad, moraliteit en integriteit, maar de dadaïstsiche schrijfstijl en non-narratieve open structuur veel ruimte laten voor een persoonlijke en immer wisselende invulling.
Net zoals ‘Dr Faustus Lights the Lights’ stevig ingebed zit in het radicalisme van de jaren dertig, ademt ook de indrukwekkende en krachtige reeks houtgravures ‘Hope and Realities’ een onmiskenbare retro-feel uit. Esthetische invloeden van art deco en totalitaire kunst voorzien in een overdonderend, nu eens melancholisch dan weer majestueus kader voor politiek en sociaal activistische slogans. De sterke maatschappijkritische inslag van hun werk kleurt ook de nieuwe fotoreeks over de impact van de tabloid pers in Zuid-Afrika. Tabloids die via hun massale aanwezigheid in het straatbeeld via posters en affiches de breuklijnen van de Zuid-Afrikaanse maatschappij bevestigen en aanwakkeren.
INTERVIEW KATRIN LOCK
Political and social activism seems to be one of the driving forces behind your work.
If you are fighting for something, you might as well fight for something that in the end might be worth fighting for.
This activism even stretches further than your artistic practice. Hence your publications about violence and arms in hip hop and other popular culture. And it's export to street culture in Africa. What is it in this theme that prompted you to write a few articles about it?
Cultural shifts and misunderstanding prompted by a global proliferation of cultural products, such as films and music are interesting developments and create curious adaptations on local levels. In the case of gun cultures it often becomes a deadly reality.
Political and social activism also seems to play a role in the photographic series you made in South Africa. Could you comment on the stance your work makes/doesn't make on the role of the press, on the power of the tabloid press. Or is that a too straightforward lecture of your work?
Posters of tabloid papers are an everyday sight / visual references in Johannesburg. Roads are plastered with endless rows of messages and news. They are particulary violent and illustrate the racial and social lines within South African society in dramatic slogans. In the image which shows resamblance to Casper David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer above the sea of fog’ our wanderer overlooks innercity bleached remains of the gold mining industry.
Your movie is inspired by/on Dr Faustus Lights The Lights. What made you choose this work ?
We felt inspired by this piece of writing. It touches upon very human and essential, but complicated questions such as betrayel, moral and integrity, the dadaist writing presents itself as openess and forecloses conclusive reading and interpretation. The fragmented nature, mutiple characters and non-linear narrative nurture individual adaptations.
Many of the prints from 'Hope and Realities' have this thirties art deco retro feel about them. Dr Faustus and Stein are also part of the cultural heritage of the avant-garde from the twenties and thirties. Is there something in (the art of) this period that fascinates you?
It does. We are also using Bertold Brecht’s / Kurt Weils ‘Mack the knife’ as a musical leitmotif in the film we made in Brussels. This particular period seems full of artists attempts to tackle and articulate social realities. The idea of being able to change things through art work seems present and powerful at the time. Does that mean that our framework of references is tinted by romanticism? Maybe we use it for our own encouragement?
When writing about Dr Faustus, many critics single out as most striking or remarkable features as the multiplicity of the characters or the switching but constant juxtaposition in pairs. Was it any of these or what other angle attracted you to work with this still somewhat enigmatic text?
We are interested in the constant change of multiple identities as presented in the play.We adapt Gertrude Stein’s non-linearity, work with repitition, reappearing characters and so on. The play is a clear and exemplatory starting point. In our projects we work with a group of approximately 10 people for a short and intense period of time (2 weeks). In discussions we establish what the film should be about but then give over to the actors to shape and embellish it.
The idea that something can be fragmented and constantly change, give/challenge is perfectly introduced in Gertrude Stein, the content is beautifully universal and pertinent, also in today’s society. The fragmented structure in the narrative allows individual actors to take stance and express their views.
Did you see any of the legendary stagings of Dr Faustus (Bob Wilson, Wooster Group) ?
We only know about them.
The movie was shot in Johannesburg, Berlin and Brussels. Any particular reasons for one or more of these localities?
Based on the hypothesis that our lives are dominated by the partly inhuman effects of globalisation, we are interested in capturing local sensibilities and responses to these processes. The question whether differences or similarities exist, the impossibility to express them, let alone compare them, is as a potential and always present failure part of the project.
Will the screening in Brussels be a premiere?
It will indeed. The film made in Johannesburg has been shown before, not the others, as a complete trilogy; yes.
