THE WINDOW. Life intervention of Parajanov’s film Sayat Nova.
Not everyone can drink my water, it is of another water. Not everyone can read my writing, it is of a different script. Do not think my substance issand: it is a crag of solid rock. As like a torrent that never dries, do not (try to) wear it down!
Sayat Nova
“Where video, experimental theatre, song, oral literature, industrial sound and acoustic installation meet, you can be sure it’s going to be pretty intense. Now added to that, imagine that the reason for their encounter is a weird, lyrical biographical film about an Armenian poet, which is prohibited by the Soviets, edited, then prohibited again. Visual experimentalist Cristina Maldonado, vocal performer Laureline Koenig and audio artist Marcus Beuter present the visual-acoustic collage The Window, which pushes theatre conceptualism to the very borders of its meaning. The main roles are not in fact played by actors, but by film. The artists physically abuse the film, inserting their own bodies into it, their own voices, looking for its new meanings… It’s the kind of performances where long after the end you still want to sit back and experience it.”
Dominik Melichar, Divadelní Noviny
In this theater performance three artists undertake the quest of unmaking a story: Maldonado works with the appropiation of the images of the iconic Armenian film that portrays Sayat Nova (ca. 1712-1795), Koenig works with Eastern story telling topics and voice improvisation, and Beuter uses field recordings he made in the East and sound improvistaion. The images taken from the film-poem The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, Armenfilm 1969) present a cryptic and startling world, and thus the performers engage with it as far as possible, intruding it and testing its resiliance, driven by the desire to blend in with the object of their contemplation.
Medium:
Duration: 50 min
Year: 2014
Premiered: Festival Flora, Olomouc, CZ. April 2014
Keywords: xx
Concept / Visuals / Performer: Cristina Maldonado
Voice improvisation / Story telling: Laureline Koenig
Field recording / Sound intervention: Marcus Beuter
Light Design: Vladimir Buria
Research assistant: Susanne Kass
Production: Jedefrau Org
Support: FONCA, Mexico; Divadlo na Cucky residency, Olomouc
AKOS residency, Armenia
Photos: Jan Moravek, Vladimir Burian.
Press:
divadelni-noviny.cz: Zmuchlat a roztrhat [CZ] / To crumple and to tear
"In Sayat Nova, Cristina works mainly with the motif of the media itself. She is not very interested
in the possibilities of the image, but rather in what happens to it in the process of projection.
The result is all sorts of bending and especially tearing, cutting and curling of the image, which can
resemble the artwork of Jiří Kolář. In fact, the resulting visual-acoustic collage, or rather its
spirit, is what remains in the viewer at the end, taking the form of an experience of a work of art."
Dominika Široká, POJMY NOVÉHO DIVADLA: Video-sochárstvo Cristiny Maldonado [SK] /
Video-sculpture of Cristina Maldonado
"Maldonado seeks her own expression of aesthetic throughout the film, and uses it mainly as material
to study the potential of live animation on stage. The film is projected on different projection
surfaces (canvas or different structures and sizes of paper), which the artist manipulates during
the performance and is deformed with scissors or through overlapping of patterned materials in
various ways."
divadelniflora.cz, INTERVIEW: V Olomouci jsme měli otevřené dveře [CZ] / In Olomouc we were welcome
"Mexican performer Cristina Maldonado talks about the role of multimedia in contemporary theatre,
the audience's surprised reactions and her special sense of humor."
artmap.cz: SAYAT NOVA / C. Maldonado (MEX), L. Koenig (FR), M. Beuter (DE) [CZ]
What Cristina Does 