Fraudulent Light – and the Epidemy of Oblivion

(working title)

Friday, January 21st, 2022 | 7pm

Tickets: on a donation basis I Please register under: karten@ehrenfeldstudios.de

Liisa Pentti, our residency guest and partner of our european network studiotrade will present the results of her solo research for her new creation Fraudulent Light – and the Epidemy of Oblivion.

Fraudulent Light – and the Epidemy of Oblivion is based on an idea presented by art history professor Jonathan Crary in his book 24/7:

According to Crary, we live in a constant and all-encompassing brightness and visuality saturated by technology. In this bright, nightless world there is no space for obscurity or events protected by obscurity.

In this bright time, when our shared bodily and emotional experience sublimates easily, it feels important to create a work that brings forth something deformed, unfettered and human – singing, movement and frenzy. Something that brings us together and makes us aware of our involvement with the existence of the lifeless and living and of our connection with the world.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, we were experiencing a strong undertone of economic liberalism, the increase of power of the authoritarian leaders and a totalitarian world view. For a female artist living in a Western democracy, this progress shows clearly how fragile the structures of democracy can be, even in a bright world.

Inspiratiion:

Fraudulent Light – and the Epidemy of Oblivion is a contemporary dance piece for 9 performers. It is inspired by Pina Bausch’s work 1980 – Ein Stück von Pina Bausch, where the performers of the Wuppertal Tanzteater are strongly human – also in their cruelty and rage that often turn into humour and self-irony.

The aim of the work is to examine its themes such as the relationships and hierarchies between genders, the plurality of gender identity, nationalities, violence, human cruelty as well as the longing for happiness, lost childhood and innocence.