Output details

Moving Gallery- The Mysterium. Performance event, as part of the 'In the Moment' Festival, London (2009). DVD contains footage of the performance (from 42' 54"). Hard copy of festival brochure evidences date of dissemination.

The idea originated at the Performing Arts Forum (PAF) near Paris in summer 2007 where I worked on a number of experimental dance/music vignettes, showcased as a promenade performance in a semi-derelict monastery. In 2009, I curated In the MOMENT Festival’s final event, using the maze of corridors, staircases and hidden passages of the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich. The research process became an attempt to realise Scriabin’s unfinished work The Mysterium - the ultimate Gesamptkunstwerk which possibly could only ever have been achieved by improvisers – like the ‘intuitive’ performers in Stockhausen’s operas. I gave all participants Scriabin’s text for the prefatory action to respond to – particularly its synaesthetic aspect. Focus was placed on audience interaction, multi-media and design, exploring lighting, colour, texture, sound and motion. Twenty-three different acts were arranged through four ‘routes’, and were repeated and varied in loops over three hours, ending with massed strings and lit dancer in the courtyard performing Stephen Montague’s Snowscape. An important output of the festival is the documentary of the event, directed by Jon Sanders. The last 45 minutes are devoted to the promenade through the ‘moving gallery’, using as a starting point Alexander Sokurov’s film The Russian Ark (2002) which explores historical scenes staged in the galleries of the Hermitage using one camera shot. The final edit of eleven of the Moving Gallery performances maintains this feeling of continuity, linking together in several long shots the great variety of interpretations of Scriabin’s vision in this dream-like journey. Unlike The Russian Ark, the sound track was recorded completely live with the camera, enhancing the sensual intimacy of the experience.