June 22nd, 2015
Another whirlwind of a day. Met up with a beautiful artist and friend Kristen Morgan www.kristenmorgandesign.com with whom I have designed numerous shows at Juniata College. We attended a lecture by Andris Freibergs, a famous Latvian Scenographer. Google image search his name if you get the chance- very cool stuff. A few notes i took in my notebook: “Every object has its daily life and its poetic meaning” and when asked about how he collaborates with directors he says “A+B=C, A+B≠AB”. Very simple, but pretty great. Collaboration is about a synthesis and birth of new ideas, not just simply putting two ideas side by side. I really like this quote. He was also really cool because he mostly just wanted to talk about his student’s work, and how wonderful they are. Thats a great teacher. After the lecture we headed over the the Jewish Cemetery- over 1000 years old and probably one of the oldest in Europe. It is also the resting place of Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the 16th Century Rabbi who is said to have created the first Golem to protect the ghetto against antisemitic attacks by the Roman Emperor Rudolf II. HE BROUGHT A MUD MAN TO LIFE Y’ALL. With spells and shit. Thats tough as hell. The Pinkas synagogue, adjacent to the cemetery is also pretty cool. Its walls are covered in the names of every recorded disappeared Jewish resident of Prague during the Holocaust. I think there are in the neighborhood of 80,000 names. Kristen’s husband is actually a descendent of Rabbi Lowe, and she found his family name on the wall. Its pretty heavy and sobering to see thousands of square feet of tiny hand written names on the wall. It made me think about the bureaucracy and manpower it takes to do that much killing, and how they did it in a way that was so invisible to the rest of the world. The banality of evil. Next stop for the day was the Australian exhibition to watch a documentary film of a performance called Whelping Box by Branch Nebula. I got some great halloween costume ideas from this show. Next I walked across town t to a performance at the Alfred ve Dvore Theater. The Dance of the Magnetic Ballerina. Performance Notes below. Then i went to check out a bunch of student country exhibitions at the Kafka House. Notable amongst those were again, ESTONIA. Fucking cool as shit. The photos below with the tiny box room with the tv and ape lady. I also found out later that night that Estonia won the award for the best exhibit!!! Woot! Well deserved. The Austrian student exhibit was also cool. You walk through a door and it opens up on a tiny replica of an Austrian dive bar. Lots of awkward Austrian students just hanging out. I ask for a drink and a stony-faced eastern european boy answers the call with some yummy herbal-infused vodka. SPEAKING OF WHICH, I have been introduced to a new love: Becherovka. Its too special to sully with lame adjectives. I’m bringing a bottle home, so just ask me to save you some. Finished off the evening having special Czech mixologist-created cocktails at a bar near our apt. The bartender would not let us see the menu, but invited us to describe our beverage desires and he would whip something up. He did very well. Kristen, Lisi and I then drew our drinks for our daily sketch, and the bartender was very impressed.
Performance Notes: Dance of the Magnetic Ballerina by Andrew Miltnerová and Jan Komárek
Check out video excerpts here. The show was really short and fierce. The ballerina’s movements where electrically charged, mechanical and repetitive- hypnotic and mesmerizing. The music was a combo of techno and african music.. ambient and sound effects. The lighting- a total of 10 or so units, being designed live in synchrony with the music and her movements. The lighting designer was finely tuned to the rhythm and added to the general trippiness. They used a very restrained palette and positions, but had maximum effect with just the level changes and rapid fire sequences. I really enjoyed it and wish this piece could come to the live arts fest, cause its like super sweet and sour visual and movement candy that you want all your friends to try.