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Questioning the physicality of space and the meaning of an object within its relation to a viewer, I tend to intertwine the viewer’s visual memory and imagination by repeating previous moments of an experience. The architectonic theatre features various objects and [theatro] expands on the notion of ‘view’ (‘thea’ in Greek, where the word ‘theatre’ comes from). The word ‘view’ is also the root of the word ‘theory’ [coming from the junction of the words ’thea’(=view) and ‘oro’( =to perceive)]. Intending the theory as practice, Ι composed [theatro] as an act of theory, asking ‘Does a de-construction of a composition inquire or does it request a knowledge of the past?’
[theatro] is a rhythmical reading experience, a 5.5 meters long transcript of a seminar performance reflecting it’s original pulse and duration. It is based on the seminar performance “PUZZLE”, that took place at FROWN, Athens initiated by Maria Lalou, consisted of Katerina Drakopoulou [A], Maro Zacharogianni [B], Maria Lalou [O], Mirrored Glass Object [X] and a live-feed camera. In this work Maria Lalou uses two software platforms for writing. Powerpoint for the pre-fabricated text and a live performed text on ‘Word’, both projected on the screen from her computer. [theatro] is verbatim transcription of the piece with several functions. Next to the documentation of the PUZZLE performance and a manual reading, it also serves as a script for the play, ‘I AM A ‘Φ’.
During the book launch in Motto Lalou will introduce the work with the lecture performance ‘theatre of consciousness’ a work based on a critical text that Lalou has written in 2013 for the academic press ‘activate’ published in London prior to the idea of [theatro]. The performance’ theatre of consciousness refers to the seen and the seer through an analysis that places the audience in a central position and as a core thematic of ‘the seen’.
[theatro] is published by Onomatopee launched primary in Eindhoven at Lalou’s solo exhibition ‘a spect’ during June 2015. The publication is designed in collaboration with Yin Yin Wong/Werkplats and includes an introduction to the work by Alena Alexandrova.
[theatro] leporello will be installed in its full length from the 19th November in the vitrines of Motto accessed through the public space. Lalou is producing a limited edition of prints of the floor plan ‘archetype’ which is one of her basic tools for this series of work, to will be installed in the exhibition space.
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Maria Lalou is an artist born in Athens in 1977. She works with the science of objects – containers, spatial installations, film and accumulated performances, developing context as of extensions of architecture. Lalou’s specialization at glass science has been evolving in contextualizing aspects of mass / surface / space/ time /duration in the sphere of cognition by challenging the bodily experience and questioning alignment of the vertical and horizontal, disposition and disorientation. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Fine Arts and from Technical University of Athens in Architecture, Design of Space – Object and Constructive Arts. She has been researcher at DasArts Amsterdam and an invited resident in e- mobilArt program for Interactive Artists. Lalou’s works have been shown amongst others in the Contemporary Art Museum of Thessaloniki during the 2nd Biennale of Thessaloniki, in ‘Technopolis’ Industrial Museum of Athens and at ‘Living Spaces’-2nd Contemporary Art Festival in Damascus, ‘Manobra’ Festival in Sao Paolo Brazil. She has been in collaboration with institutions as the E-Engineering of the Hogeschool of Amsterdam as an external adviser, with Roehampton Univesity in London as a writer on a post academic journal and an invited lecturer by Rijksacademie Studios in Amsterdam in 2012. For more info visit: http://reaction-lalou.com
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