Close

Login

Close

Register

Close

Lost Password

In Performance: VA WÖLFL – NEUER TANZ “ICH SAH: DAS LAMM AUF DEM BERG ZION, OFFB. 14,1” (Amsterdam, NL)

VA WÖLFL – NEUER TANZ
“ICH SAH: DAS LAMM AUF DEM BERG ZION, OFFB. 14,1”
(And I looked and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, Revelation, 14,1)
Festival Julidans (Amsterdam,NL)
July 1 & 2 2011

© VA WÖLFL

“Wölfl is a plastician, an incredible creator of shows, a philosopher descending from the Greek cynics; he is also a cruel, radical destroyer who conceives his pieces as so many exploding devices. Sheer ranting is guaranteed for all.” – THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE

In the mid -80’s, VA Wölfl steered away from graphic arts and kidnapped dance. What he now needs is intense animation, creatures of flesh and blood, to show the havoc wrought in bodies and minds by our societies’ present refusal to think. The German artist investigates the new territories of daily addictions, the general anaesthesia of emotions, the demise of free will. This he does by broaching a variety of topics such as international finance, parking areas in shopping malls, as well as sacrifice or war…Those who attend see how movement is disintegrated and petrified by pulsions, how over-heated brains, the constant prey to short-circuit, unload a continuous magma of sound material, songs, stereotyped phrases, howling and solitary tears. In short, the hysterical banality of a blinding emptiness. The viewer feels sucked in, possessed. Fear lurks round the corner. VA Wölfl the ogre is behind the tiller, exulting. He is master of all he surveys, conception, creative process and narrative. The dancers, who realize that they are taking part in a stupefying adventure, give it all they have without restraint. (from Dominique Frétard)

Share This Post

Caden Manson is a director, media artist, and teacher. He is co-founder of the media ensemble bigartgroup.com and network, blog, and publisher, contemporaryperformance.com. He has co-created, directed, video- and set designed 18 Big Art Group productions. Manson has shown video installations in Austria, Germany, NYC, and Portland; performed PAIN KILLER in Berlin, Singapore and Vietnam; Taught in Berlin, Rome, Paris, Montreal, NYC, and Bern; the ensemble has been co-produced by the Vienna Festival, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Hebbel Am Ufer, Rome’s La Vie de Festival, PS122, and Wexner Center for The Arts. Caden is a 2001 Foundation For Contemporary Art Fellow, is a 2002 Pew Fellow and a 2011 MacDowell Fellow. Writing has been published in PAJ, Theater Magazine, and Theater der Zeit. Caden is currently an associate professor and graduate directing option coordinator of The John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama.

Related Articles