The Spectator's Theatre, 2018
Installation, variable dimensions.
©Ksenia Peretrukhina
Collection: Courtesy of the Artist.
“The Spectator's Theatre” is a series of interactive facilities — theatrical auditoriums with different arrangements at VDNkH (The Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy) enabling spectators to become actors and conduct experiments both on themselves and the surrounding world. The project argues that hierarchy is not the best way to organise social order and invites viewers to try and “rehearse” a diversity of orders, to experience the horizontal social structure and the freedom of choice. For these purposes, a theatre prototype is organically suitable offering a play-like laboratory space, which shatters established patterns of behaviour and provides a viewer with an opportunity to do something extraordinary, to play a role, to become a creator.
The objects are open to verbal and kinesthetic interaction inviting viewers to try different roles (though not imposing them), e.g. a role of contemporary Hamlet contemplating our time, a role of a free individual personality taking an independent decision to take part in the proposed action, a role of a creator building his / her own artistic world. The seriality of objects implies a structure of a travel, a comparison, a discovery. The location and arrangement of each separate object creates opportunities for building an individual plot and individual way of interaction with it. In parallel, the project tells about the modern theatre, its diversity, its capabilities and the fact that the theatre today is a powerful, relevant tool for transforming reality.
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Media
>Total Theatre, 2018, plywood, metal The tribune invites a viewer to climb it, take a seat, and observe the life of the city – its architecture, weather, people. It invites to feel the flow of life as a process and oneself as an important part of this process. “Total Theater” is a tool for the viewer to independently consturct his / her own city, history, environment, and to appropriate them in his / her mind. In terms of its functions, this rostrum is similar to its “sister” occupying the Times Square in New York, as well as to many more temporary constructions installed in various landmark places of the world. The area near the People’s Friendship fountain seems to be the best spot in Moscow to host such a construction. It serves as an ultimate representation of the Stalinist architecture, the artistic peak of the certain historical period, which is associated with a whole range of concepts and attitutes, in particular, admiration, rejection, attempted restoration, trauma, human disaster, the last great mythology, national pride, interconnection of art and social issues, and many other extremely important topics longing to be reflected upon by the contemporary thought. In this sense, the platform of the “Total Theater” is a democratic proposal addressed to everyone – to think over important issues of our time and form one’s individual opinion.
>Horizontal Theatre, 2018, plywood, metal, text A flat surface hosts a number of seats arraned in a random order. No one knows in advance where the action will happen, it can happen everywhere. Some things will be happenning right near your knees, whereas others – at the far end of the stage. There are no privileged seats like in a traditional theater, but all seats are different though. Each spectator here will have his / her own individual performance. One is also not a mere spectator: he is both an observer and an object of observation for other people. Instructions on the seats invite you to creatively explore the space. Though their optionality is fundamental for the artist: one can perceive the “Horizontal Theare” as an interactive sculpture or equally as a simple park bench. Dedicated to Olga Lopukhova.
>Theatre for One Spectator, 2018, plywood, metal The smallest of all the objects, this is a tiny theatre – the theater for one spectator. In can become a stage for a solo show, for a wedding proposal or musical performance. The object is located inside the architectural group of the People’s Friendship fountain, contrasting with it both in scale and in message. One person is a minimum and sufficient condition for a single artistic event or the whole theatre exists.
Artist
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> Ksenia Peretrukhina.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
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> Ensemble: 2019.
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> Ensemble: Present Continuous V-A-C/M HKA.