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KunstenFESTIVALdesArts
Edition 2000
PLATONOV EXPERIMENT
In May
2000 as part of the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts,
the independent Brussels-based company, Utopia,
has performed its work enterrer les Morts, réparer
les Vivants. It is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s
Platonov by Utopia’s director, Armel
Roussel. In Brussels, rehearsals began on 3 January. However,
the rehearsals have been brought from behind the scenes to
centre stage because from the outset Utopia’s actors
have been sharing their work’s evolution with the public.
The Platonov
Experiment is a website providing an unedited view of
how a production is brought to the stage. On the initiative
of the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts and with the help of the virtual
arts festival Jonctions/Verbindingen,
Utopia has invested in the internet and launched an original
website to follow the transformation worked by actors upon
the characters. The website transmits experiences from life
as they happen.
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How did this project come about? |
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In June 1999, the Jonctions/Verbindingen festival had just finished.
In it, the group Constant had offered the public a collection
of artistic works by visual artists, novelists and travellers.
They are inventors, sharing a new way of reading, writing and
creating based on the possibilities offered by the internet.
This “virtual” festival takes place every year and
Constant wanted to become more firmly rooted in the city by
becoming closely linked to a festival that offers the public
actual live performances. |
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Conference
Archives:
Auslander
webcast.gatech.edu/
papers/arch/
Auslander.html |
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At
the same time the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts was putting together
a programme of contemporary creations in opera, theatre, dance,
video and plastic installations and thinking things over. What
the public sees is just the tip of the iceberg. What is not
seen is the treasure trove of images, texts, visions and thoughts
that each artist and company plays around with during the creative
months of developing its piece. The Festival wanted to develop
a website that is more than just a useful place to obtain information.
It wanted to use the website as a platform for the artists as
they create - and asked them what their vision of it would be.
More precisely the Festival wanted to know whether the artists
would be tempted to use the functionalities of the net to create
a personal project that would not be possible with more traditional
means of communication. |
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Utopia’s
Armel Roussel was preparing his production of Chekhov’s
Platonov to be performed at the Festival in Brussels in May
2000. He adapted the original text and re-named it enterrer
les Morts / réparer les Vivants. Rehearsals were due
to start in January in an old garage transformed into a studio,
located in the Rue des Coteaux in one of the Brussels’
city’s working class districts. He answered the Festival’s
enquiries about the website immediately. “I’d like
the public to be immersed in the way our piece is developing.
I want to ask the actors rehearsing to spend two minutes a day
in front of a webcam talking about how the character that each
is playing is progressing. Everything they say will be broadcast
onto the net, dated and then stored on the website. The public
will be able to follow the development of each character and,
for our part, we will be able to benefit from the thoughts they
record about their characters to enrich the rehearsals”.
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This
is how the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts and Constant came to be partners,
showing on a website how Utopia’s ideas are progressing.
The web surfer can click on constantly updated interviews with
actors or on texts, sounds and images that, behind the scenes,
are feeding Utopia’s work. Each page on the site is like
a free pass to the stage door. The play lends itself to this
– it is close, direct, incisive and bubbling with energy.
In Armel’s adaptation, the characters’ fate is “as
ethereal and funereal as the suicide of a butterfly”.
Introduced in three languages, this experimental site will be
in French, as the director is from Brittany and its actors are
French-speakers. |
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Projet/planches/écrans:
Forced
Entertainment
www.forced.co.uk
Yearbody
Animation www.art.net/~troika/
yearbodyanim.html
Damaged
Goods
www.damagedgoods.be
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The project
is a first of its kind, intimately linking two processes of
creation – that of the stage and that of the website.
A frequently debated topic concerning the internet is the
lack of content. The Platonov Experiment offers a lively
and meaningful alternative to using the net for business purposes.
The
Platonov Experiment
A creation
of the Compagnie Utopia as part of the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts.
Production:
KunstenFESTIVALdesArts.
Consultants: Constant
asbl/vsw.
Web Designer: François
Bourgaux.
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