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6/9/2011

Chewing the Scenery

Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Venezia

Chewing the Scenery—a term dating back to the nineteenth century—is a description of a way of acting that suggests that the actor is excessively overacting. With its manifold meanings it also seems to imply the capacity of the scenery chewer to destabilize the fine dividing line between proper and not-proper, between virtuosity and embarrassing ineptitude. Thoughts come to mind of the actor who doesn’t know when to stop, lingering on stage far longer than the role demands, willfully and self-indulgently creating mayhem in the timing and contents of the script.

At the same time “chewing” also suggests something languorous, the possibility of being caught up in a gluey mass, viscous motion. As such, it describes something of the circumstances needed for the close, sensitive scrutiny and the (in)voluntary prolongation of that situation. So “chewing” is also about repetition, the constant contrary motion that arises from a non-linear concept of temporality, since it posits different times and states as both concurrent and interconnected. It’s even tempting to use “chewing” (over) to describe a person’s ambivalent response to a particular configuration, such as a nation, for instance. And in the context of a project that is also part of a wider scenario of national displays, where creative artists “represent” nations, “chewing” may also be about worrying away at something.

In light of the postcolonial and queer discourses on temporality and chronopolitics, Chewing the Scenery deals with delays, leaps and ruptures, anachronisms and dissonances, as the basis for an enquiry into supposed pasts, potential futures and presumed presents in time-based art and in writing. This different view of temporality is nottied down by the constraints of fixed notions of identity and linear narrations of change or progress; on the contrary it seeks to read these as temporary, fragilely complex and mobile constellations of time, history and identity.
The straightforwardness and forward-lookingness of the rhythms of time are perfectly synchronized with hegemonial structures such as heteronormativity, neo-liberalism and “Western” progress.
The dismissal of certain subjects as “backward” or “without prospects” is merely a telling example of this—an example with distinctly political overtones, considering the widespread insistence on the tax-paying, nuclear family as a synonym for future, the pressure to “keep up,” the stigma that still attaches to clinical depression, and the increase in ever-new manifestations of racism and the ensuing security and control measures.

The artists’ works and texts in this project more or less directly address the question as to how issues that are as yet “undigested” can be recognized and revisited. Not in order to come up with “solutions” but to find a way of avoiding positions such as “for” and “against” or “us” and “them” at the same time as engaging with the complexity of conflict. As they seek out differentiated modes of critique that don’t merely polarize, they also strive for the aforementioned sensitive scrutiny, for a “close reading” that may be “simply too close for comfort” (Elizabeth Freeman).
Critical reappraisal of homogenous time and linearity leads to questions concerning individual and societal notions of “career” and “professionalism,” and hence to the question of the pleasure of “doing your work” with a complete lack of discipline (or not doing it at all). Chewing the Scenery is the outcome of ongoing communication with and between the artists, authors and others involved in its making—in the hope that the project itself may exemplify an open, collective, experimental interface for artistic, theoretical, editorial and curatorial production processes.

Chewing the Scenery is a multipart project comprising diverse items created for the Biennale, some of which will continue to evolve during the course of the exhibition. The location for the project is in and around the Teatro Fondamenta Nuove in Venice; while some items are on view all day every day until October 2, one takes the form of a continuous loop at a fixed time each day, others are unique one-off appearances.

Andrea Thal, Curator

Swiss off-site pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia 2011

A Live Event consisting of an evening of music performances and concerts followed by three days of lectures, screenings, performances and discussions along the concepts of Becoming Imperceptible, Feeling Bad and Touching Across Time.

September 7, 2011 · from 20:00
MOTHER introduce: Live Light & Sound Installation: Alona Rodeh Concerts: Maya Dunietz, Vera November

September 8, 2011 · from 16:00
Becoming Imperceptible
Introduction: Elahe Haschemi Yekani
Lecture: Rubia Salgado
Performance: Eran Schaerf
Film Screening: Maria Iorio / Raphaël Cuomo

September 9, 2011 · from 16:00
Feeling Bad
Lecture: Sara Ahmed
Lecture: Sarah Franklin
Film and video program curated by Karin Michalski (moderated by Renate Lorenz and Karin Michalski) with special guest Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa

September 10, 2011 · from 16:00
Touching Across Time
Introduction by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz
A performative presentation by PhD in Practice / academy of fine arts vienna (Nika Autor, Michael Baers, Mareike Bernien, Giulia Cilla, Eva Egermann, Ana Hoffner, Elske Rosenfeld as well as Tom Holert, Renate Lorenz and Johanna Schaffer)
Lecture: Elizabeth Freeman
Lecture: Mathias Danbolt

From Sept 7-Sept 10, the exhibition (No Past / No Future by Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz and publication 'Chewing the scenery') is open only from 10am - 2pm.

The program from September 8 to 10, 2011 is acoustically framed by Fred Hystère & Ginger Drops Downstairs DJ collective and Jenny Woolworth. Curated by Andrea Thal. In collaboration with: Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz, Karin Michalski, MOTHER (Dafne Boggeri, Noga Inbar, Nicole Emmenegger) und PhD in Practice/Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Publication Available from edition fink

Image: Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, No Future, 2011, Super 16mm / HD, Filmstill

Teatro Fondamenta Nuove
Cannaregio 5013, Venezia
opening hours: 10-6 (closed on monday)
Vaporetto line 41 / 42 or 51 / 52 to Fondamente Nove
Vaporetto line 1 to Ca’ d’Oro

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