curator's cut | 2007
In February 2007, Ballet-Tanz, Europe’s leading dance magazine, proposed to the Brussels and Berlin-based performance collective C&H to freely dispose of two facing pages of their June issue of the same year.
Accepting the offer, C&H decided to subdivide the pages in 32 equal parts and to resell these as advertising space. The total money earned from the sales would be used as the production budget for a new work by C&H entitled: Curator’s Cut.
For the price of 250€ for a unit of 64 by 48 mm, the buyers could publish the content of their choice on C&H’s pages inside of the renown Ballet-Tanz magazine. Additionally, each advertising unit purchased would give the buyer the right to determine one aspect of what he, or she wished the future work to become (or not to become). Making use of this right was compulsory.
With the agreement of the magazine’s editorial board, C&H sent this offer to a selection of 270 international theaters and art institutions in Europe as well as overseas. Out of 50 interested (and interesting) reactions, the following 15 institutions responded positively, purchasing a total of 17 advertising units and expressing accordingly many desires for the work they indirectly would finance:
Antic teatre, Barcelona / Artis, Den Bosch / lesBains, Brussels / Etcetera magazine, Brussels / Gessnerallee Theatre, Zurich / Grütli Theatre, Geneva / Hangar, Barcelona / Kampnagel, Hamburg / Kunst/Werk (2), Antwerp / Nadine (2), Brussels / Netwerk, Aalst / Rebecca September, Brussels / TNT, Bordeaux / Troubleyn, Antwerp / Zodiak, Helsinki
As five of the above listed institutions could not afford 250€, but were still very eager to participate in the project, they proposed to contribute in other ways to the production of Curator’s Cut: C&H has accepted rehearsal studio time, administrative support and dramaturgy consultation as valid exchange values for the publication of the advertisements. The monetary proceeds of the sales amounted to a gross total of 3000€ (12 x 250€).
Eventually realizing the commercial success of the venture, the marketing department of the Ballet-Tanz magazine claimed a share of 50% of the benefits made by C&H. The final production budget available for Curator’s Cut thus amounted to 1500€.
Curator’s Cut is a performance in the classical sense. Created for stage, with a beginning middle and end, the audience watches a ‘show’ that has been created out of the 17 directives given by the respective theaters involved in the project. For approximately 25 minutes the trio are joined by a group of 64 extras, a dog, a plant, a drum set, an electrical guitar, the full extent of the theater’s sound and light set up, as well as 25 Ballet-Tanz magazines, all of which are put into action. The result is a succession of situations: A rock concert, a ballet, a still life, a lecture, a light show, a talk about ecology, etc. Meanwhile, an informative video projection lists the successive directions that prompted all these elements and situations to come into play.
At the end of these 25 minutes the public is invited outside and onto the street in front of the theater where the final instructions are displayed on a large banner. For the last 15 minutes of the piece this exterior space is animated with free drinks, food and music offered in person by the director and administrators of the theater. In a hybrid atmosphere somewhere between marketplace and manifestation, C&H invites the spectators to participate as curators themselves, by asking them to each propose one new instruction that corrects or modifies in whatever way they wish, the existing piece. The best instruction is then added to the existing ones and taken into account with the next staging of Curator's Cut.
Curator’s Cut premiered on the 18th of December 2007 at the Grütli theater in Geneva and was conceived according to the following 17 instructions:
• Everything must have a pattern.
• à la rue, dans les deux sens (to the street in both ways / “à la rue” can also mean “being lost”)
• Expand the focus from only humans and bodies to movement as a life phenomenon. Explore this through three topics: 1) animals 2) plants 3) a system. Performance should include representatives of fauna and flora, and also include some system.
• 164 swiss citizen have occupied the Grutli Theater during a week with the project “Les Perses”. At any time, you let 164 citizen pass by. A choir crossing the space.
• The phrase “It takes a lifetime to become a young artist.” must be repeated once every ten minutes in the piece. It may be said in different languages.
• Find your own religion and a happy ending!
• Make sure you can travel light!
• Try to think about what a perfect concept for your production could be and make these thoughts part of the performance.
• Nadine would like curator’s cut to be Unix based.
• “Q: am i alive or dead A: we don’t have to think like that anymore” (Solaris, 2002)
• ‘Potentie i.p.v. polyvalentie (etcetera)’ / potential rather than polyvalence (etc)
• The piece should be relevant to the way we are living now and reach outside the art elite context.
• L’Antic Teatre, Barcelona presents the newest production of it resident Company Semolina Tomic: LENIN IS MINE? Physical Theater / Multimedia Premier: 11,12,13 of July, GREC Festival 2007, Barcelona
figuration:
Aline Dedeyan, Amina Mehida, Ariane Bertholet, Arlette Avidor, Blanca Zutta, Catherine Willemin, Cécile Bonnet, Chloé Lepeltier, Corinne Sulliger, Christian Cunnet, Christine Barthélémy, Christine Ronfini, Dominique Baumberger, Dorothée Thébert, Fabienne Silva, Fatme Jaquenoud, Félix Zutta, François Leresche, Geneviève Gorra, Geneviève Roches, Gonzague Bernardeau, Janine Schreyer, Jean Degeilh, Jeanne Quattropani, Karin Floris, Ludivine Guex, Magdalena Chrusciel, Marie Pierre, Alain Mutzenberg, Monique Rakotoarimanana, Nicole Sansonnens, Paola Heyd, Patricia Ayer, Patricia Francia, Pauline Monin, Pia Drzewinski, Pia Voldet, Regina Joye, Ruhal Floris, Sabine Lalive, Stephanie Guibentif and her two children, Stéphane Renou , Sylvy Pasquali, Sylvie Rombaldi, Sylvie Steinmann, Valérie Müller,
Yasmine El-Sanie, Yvonne Harder and her three children.
Tour
18-12-2007 Grutli Theater, Genevaconcept :
C&H
performance :
Christophe Meierhans, Heike Langsdorf, Christoph Ragg
chien :
Kafka
thanks :
Anna Rispoli, Arnd Wesemann, Ballet-tanz, Christelle Marro Valère, l’Elephant/Bxl, Fabio Visone, Imanol Atorrasagasti, Khaled Kouri, Laurent Annoni, Maya Bösch, Michèle Pralong, Nadine, Sarah Petitpierre, Suzanne Perrin, Tarek Mghafri, Ula Sickle
fotos :
Fabio Visone
support :
Nadine, frogs OS, Hangar
coproduction and instructions :
Antic teatre, e-tcetera, Fouradanse/Vaison la Romaine, GRÜ/Geneva, Hangar, K3 at Kampnagel, Kunst/Werk, Bains_Connective, Nadine, Netwerk / center for contemporary art, Rebecca September, Theaterhaus Gessnerallee, le TNT, Troubleyn/Jan Fabre, Zodiak
technique :
Iguy Roulet, Jean-Michel Broillet
costumes :
C&H, Bernadette Laffut
film :
C&H, Semolina Tomic
scenography :
C&H
light :
Iguy Roulet, C&H
music :
AC/DC, Cliff Martinez, George Clooney, Kainani Kahaunale, Natascha Mc Elhone, Piotr Illitch Tschaikowsky
extras :
Aline Dedeyan, Amina Mehida, Ariane Bertholet, Arlette Avidor, Blanca Zutta, Catherine Willemin, Cécile Bonnet, Chloé Lepeltier, Corinne Sulliger, Christian Cunnet, Christine Barthélémy,
more extras :
Christine Ronfini, Dominique Baumberger, Dorothée Thébert, Fabienne Silva, Fatme Jaquenoud, Félix Zutta, François Leresche, Geneviève Gorra, Geneviève Roches,
and more :
Nicole Sansonnens, Paola Heyd, Patricia Ayer, Patricia Francia, Pauline Monin, Pia Drzewinski, Pia Voldet, Regina Joye, Ruhal Floris, Sabine Lalive, Stephanie Guibentif, Stéphane Renou
and last but not least :
Sylvy Pasquali, Sylvie Rombaldi, Sylvie Steinmann, Valérie Müller, Yasmine El-Sanie, Yvonne Harder
and more :
Gonzague Bernardeau, Janine Schreyer, Jean Degeilh, Jeanne Quattropani, Karin Floris, Ludivine Guex, Magdalena Chrusciel, Marie Pierre, Alain Mutzenberg, Monique Rakotoarimanana