My favs for 2008

I was thinking a lot lately for the highlights of last year, what happened and what changed. A lot of stuff but here are just some personal favorite items:

Favorite movie: Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski by Werner Herzog - even if it was made in 1999, I watched it so many times in 2008 that i've learned most of the lines and had favourite parts for special moments. I anticipate that it will be a well-watched movie this year also.








Favorite performance: The Funeral by Péter Nádas, directed by László Bocsárdi, Comedy Theatre Bucharest, I've already wrote about this show here









Favorite album: Beirut – Gulag Orkestar from 2006 - happy to discover Beirut in 2008, it can change my mood in a second (maybe that's why I've listened it so many times) and then you cannot stop listening to it, you have to go for the whole album on and on.



Favorite art exhibit: Love, Erotica, Passion Exhibition in Prague - erotic themes in 15th to 19th century at the Clam Gallas Pallace in Husova Street. I hope they still have this exhibition. Well organized, wonderful possible explorations. The art pieces were taken from Prague City Archives, National Gallery and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Amazing expressions of sexuality in so many twisted ways.

Favorite book: Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria by Juliet Mitchell, from 2001 - this book made my life easier and gave me a lot of exciting ideas for my work and being-in-the-world (not only the academic one)









Favorite live show: CocoRosie at Trafo - a complete show: music, performing, costumes, images, interaction and Sierra and Bianca, I had it in my mind for so long.





Favorite moment of 2008: open rehearsal of Jehanne Complex, the idea that we actually did it, and there were people there to close the performing circle. A great experience all in all, it gave me a great feeling concerning theatre, my projects and what you can do with amazing people that you can meet in so many contexts but never like in a performing situation.

Jeanne is back

Jeanne is in Germany now and she has a blog. Check it out here. I always liked her style of writing and now she is here with some fresh and captivating stuff. I hope she won't get bored too quick...

There is also a post about Jehanne Complex, a post that is full of memories for me. It was really amazing to work on this performance, to construct it step by step, to talk a lot, rehearse and drink coffees together for hours and hours. And I really miss that type of chemistry. The post goes like this:

"Retrospective Thoughts on Jehanne Complex
2 November 2008
The repeated rehearsing of something does not lead to lack of catharsis with each performance. This I learned clearly. The throwing of everything up and down again. Giving. Self-obsession or self–entrenchment again and again. But, it is also investment FOR people, as well as a self-congratulations. (Initial inspiration and motives, in the end, are perhaps not so important.)
First scene: “My name is Jeanne, and I’ve just eaten a hamburger.” Black men’s suit, tie, shoes and skull cap with white button-down shirt. I carry a Burger King meal bag containing a whopper, French fries, a coke and a Heinz ketchup bottle. I walk around the stage, staring at the audience suspiciously, after closing the white curtains making up the stage’s backdrop. Meditative, Middle-Eastern-sounding music comes on and I remove my shoes and meditate. After I can relax and control my breathing, I emerge from my meditation and begin to unpack the meal bag. I spread a lot of ketchup over the whopper, set out the French fries and coke, and begin to eat. I always ate three big bites of the burger (it affected my digestion).
Second scene: Microphone “Close to the town where I was born, there is a tree known as the ladies’ tree. It’s a great beech tree, centuries old. In the shade of its branches, there is a spring. In the month of Mary, children decorate the branches of the ladies’ tree with garlands. They sit beside the spring and eat together. I did that with my friends, but I never saw or heard tell of dwarfs or any other creatures of the devil… God’s voices haunt me. They never do leave me in peace. They are constantly encouragin’ and pushin’ me.” The microphone has ghosts that trick me. I speak into one and the other one produces sound. My voice is manipulated and distorted…a sort of comedy.
Third scene: Shaving The legs, like a girl, then the face, like a boy. Jehanne was sexually ambiguous with no period bleeding and breasts, and a mission from “God”. I contemplatively shave one calf in silence…getting some shaving cream on my chin, I begin to rub it along my jaw. Gospel song of “Run on for a long, long time…” I felt like a hero preparing for battle. Like Jehanne before leading an army. But then, my tormentors arrive…"

Understanding Derrida: presence on stage

Dealing with performer’s presence on stage, one major problem comes into play. In Derrida's approach, presence is not reality but a reality effect, one that can be associated with charisma, a main tool in constructing systems of domination. By invoking actor's presence as a major tool in relating audiences, you are inevitably linked to a repressive status-quo. That was bothering me for a while and I couldn't see a way out. The answer arrived surprisingly from my last performance, through Jeanne Hamilton’s special being-on-stage. I realized it quite late and thanks to her I understood Derrida's point. Here it is: in order to cut the links with existing systems of dominance that are enforced by performance mechanism, a performance must find ways to deconstruct performer's presence. This is how we did it: in highly intense scenes where the performer’s self was "stretched and exposed" what we were involving was an explicit refusal of the performer to make a greater investment of the self in one procedure or another. By using the good old alienating effect, the emotional commitment in acting was distanced and demystified. The presence of the realist actor that comes from inside was left behind. What was still there was the intensity of the moment that was showed and not lived.


rehearsing what we called "the confession scene", Jeanne with one of her self portraits

Jehanne Complex

Exquisite

Research & Performing Group

Presents

Jehanne Complex

Jeanne Hamilton-Bick (US) will perform.

Deniz Gőzler (TUR), Trever Hagen (US) and Serhan Kazaz (TUR) will play live music.

Arany Gitta (HU), Lányi Katalin (HU), Rencsisovszki Beatrix (HU) and Seregély Beáta (HU) will dance.

A performance by Mihai Lucaciu (RO).

Tuesday, 20th of May, 8.00 PM – open rehearsal

Wednesday, 21st of May, 8.00 PM - premiere

In front of CEU Auditorium

Nador utca 9, Budapest

Everyone is welcomed but seating is limited

An Unsaid Word

She who has power to call her man
From that enstranged intensity
Where his mind forages alone,
Yet keeps her peace and leaves him free,
And when his thoughts to her return
Stands where he left her, still his own,
Knows this the hardest thing to learn.


by Adrienne Rich

images of jehanne after 2000

as usual, when i have a major theme and i try to see how young people see it nowadays i search it on deviant art. "Joan of arc" returned over 1500 images. still popular, the well known character is presented in a fetishistic manner: the androgynous young woman becomes a voluptuous blond medieval princess with a big sword. I am surprised by the unity of vision and imagination on this mysterios historical character.

here are some relevant examples:


the idealized fairy story princess is a recurrent symbol:

one exception: Jehanne as a punk junky, her voices are creating the world that we live.


i must say that for me, Jehanne, at this moment, in exploring her as a possible theme for a performance, resemblance Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry". Search continues.

Jehanne

Her name was written in a variety of ways. She reportedly signed her name as Jehanne

In an attempt to investigate what really happened during Jehanne's trial, the Pope ordered a second trial in 1455. The new trial included testimony from over 100 witnesses who all knew Jehanne. These proceedings were well documented and preserved. According to the witness accounts, Jehanne had well developed breasts, but no pubic hair and that she never menstruated. These are strong indicators of a chromosomal abnormality known as testicular feminization. A person suffering from testicular feminization is chromosomally male, they have one X and one Y chromosome, but outwardly appears to be female. This gender confusion is due to a mutation in the X chromosome, which causes different hormones to be produced and results in the genitalia to appear to be female. The main symptoms are well developed breasts, little to no pubic hair, as well as the absence of menstruation (due the absence of internal female organs). All of these symptoms correspond to the testimonies that were given back in 1431.