sarma

This text is part of the project Afterwords, curated by Jeroen Peeters for the festival ImPulsTanz Vienna in summer 2002. Every night, three critics in residence shared their impressions and thoughts on the performances immediately after having seen them, in an act of instantaneous writing. During the process of writing, these comments were projected in the theatre lobby and later that night made available on the websites http://www.impulstanz.com and http://derstandard.at.
A selection of the texts by Jeroen Peeters is available on Sarma, in a slightly edited version, sometimes with a postscript. Two essays elucidate the project Afterwords and reflect on its poetical and political implications. To retrieve the material, search under: ‘Afterwords’.

A child looking at the clouds, waiting for dragons to appear.

Rothko chapel. Veiled, decapitated. Dressed, disembodied. Scratch. Scratchscratch. Die Kunst der Fuge, figure of suspense, figure of death. On the edge. Over the hedge. Doped. Lobster. Throwing lobsters. A quadrille. Professor Lupin? A werewolf! Camp. Jimi! Sounds on a tea-table. Crawling. Boum! There is something queer with the credits. Did you know ‘The Goldberg Variations’ is the theme of Doctor Hannibal Lecter? Nothing in my hands. Nothing in my pockets. Magic! Shamanism. Professor Snape, potions. Strings. Cheshire cat, grinning. Along the shore. Imagine J.S. Bach being an old woman or a rock. Shaved armpits?

"Allow randomness in your memory." (Vera Mantero, revisiting free associative writing)

 

Postscript November 2002: As the last line suggests, this Afterwords text was written following a specific principle I came across in a Vera Mantero workshop around the same time. During the performance, I spoke out silently all the free associations I made while watching; afterwards I tried to recall this process in the writing. The text in the end reflects the all too serious but hilarious random stupidity of the performance itself.