ALGEBRA OF PLACE
A Film Arabesque
2006
Woman Aino Junka
Child Tristan Alexander Kold Christensen
Master of Ceremony DJ Ishtar
Concept, installation, direction Kirsten Dehlholm, Ralf Richardt Strøbech
Film, film montage Joachim Hamou
Film animation Ralf Richardt Strøbech
Light design Adalsteinn Stefansson
Sound design Anders Jørgensen
Musical arrangement Sharie Parsipoor
Music Toires, Radar, Sertab, Bahramji & Manish de Moor, Kareem Raihani, Anima
Sound system, Zohar, Kareem Al Iraqi, Oum Kalsoum, Mystic Diversions, Natacha
Atlas, Nil
Text Tahar Ben Jelloun `The Sand Child´
…Even this culture-confrontation tableau is a coup – pure Dehlholm. The distance between us and them is tangible; it is
impossible to be completely sure of what is up and what is down, or where the Arabian world actually begins and ends. And what some of the spaces show us is hardly what we had expected, either.
– Monna Dithmer
Information
Godless banister falsehood.
Axelborg’s free fall entices both the onlooker and Hotel Pro Forma down into the deep of an Arabian Dehlholm.
– Anne Middelboe Christensen
Read the full review here (Danish)
Billedkunst
A Dizzying Arabian Visual Poem
– Mette Garfield
A Play between Eye and Space – reflections on Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place 1
– Christian Pagh
Copenhagen Post
…Hotel Pro Forma is the only theatre group in existence in this country who successfully combines the two genres of live art and experimental theatre with works which require active spectatorship, thought and legwork..
A performance that investigates the Arabic Culture
Algebra of Place is an art installation, a film, a performance, seen from above. An architecture with optical illusions. A filmic narrative that, like a arabesque, winds its way through many fictive spaces. Spaces that open up with reception and gifts, show factual knowledge, give stories, and topical events. Spaces that tell about pomp and prejudice, personal care and gender-separated rituals, ancient knowledge, geometry and learning processes.
The woman is the recurring character – in a supporting role. She turns up at the edge of the picture, in the film or in the space as the person who fits herself in or as the one creating the narrative. In this way, the story acquires several points of view – true to the Arabian narrative tradition.
The spectators stand on balconies on seven floors, looking down into a well of images. The woman and the varying film projections challenge the eye and traditional angles from which things are viewed.
The woman is lying on the coach in the lounge before she disappears down the staircase to open the door to the secret space. In a corner, a boy sits playing. The scene in the conference room closes the tour with The Late Night Show. Finally, we talk on the phone with each other, with the world.
Voices, factual sounds and music from the Middle East fill the space as a co-playing sound image, composed on site by the female DJ.
Algebra of Place is an exchange of the thoughts, visions and experiences we have, we have imposed on us, at present, when it is more necessary than ever to distinguish between motive and cause, cause and effect, between names for races, religions and people, between politics, business, art and culture. Art’s comment on the world situation.
Algebra of Place deals with the formation of meanings, with how we construct meaning and significance, with how we break down and build up what is present, that which exists everywhere. The things are seen from many angles. It is movement as form. The sequence in itself is movement, with corridors, blind alleys, rooms and salons, departures and arrivals. An ornamented narrative that engages sight and senses, stimulates thought and reflection.
En film arabesk
2006
En forestilling der undersøger den arabiske kultur.
Stedets Algebra er en kunstinstallation, en film, en forestilling, set oppefra. En arkitektur med optiske illusioner. En filmisk fortælling der som en arabesk snor sig igennem mange rum i et fiktivt arabisk hotel. Rum der åbner sig med modtagelse og gaver, viser historier, faktuel viden og aktuelle begivenheder. Rum der beretter om fryd og fordomme, kønsopdelte ritualer, gammel viden, geometri og læreprocesser.
Kvinden er den gennemgående figur, en bifigur. Hun dukker op i kanten af billedet, på filmen eller i rummet som den person, der passer sig ind eller som den, der skaber fortællingen. Således får historien flere synsvinkler, som følger arabisk fortælletradition.
Tilskuerne står på balkoner i syv etagers højde og ser ned i en brønd af billeder. Turen gennem hotellet stopper kort ved terrassen med lys og udsigt til høj himmel og fortsætter på strandpromenaden, hvor ryttere til hest rider i strandkanten i solnedgangens gyldne lys.
Kvinden ligger på divaen i loungen, før hun forsvinder ned ad trappen for at åbne døren til det hemmelige rum. I et hjørne sidder drengen og leger. Scenen i konferencesalen afslutter turen med The Late Night Show. Til sidst taler vi i telefon, med hinanden, med verden.
Stemmer, reallyde og mellemøstlig musik fylder rummet som et medspillende lydbillede, der komponeres på stedet af den kvindelige DJ.
Stedets Algebra er en udveksling af de tanker, syner og oplevelser vi har, og som vi får pålagt i disse år, hvor det mere end nogensinde er nødvendigt at skelne mellem motiv, årsag og virkning, mellem betegnelser for racer, religioner og mennesker, mellem politik, forretning, kunst og kultur. Kunstens kommentar til verdenssituationen.
Stedets Algebra handler om betydningsdannelser, om hvordan vi konstruerer mening og betydning, om hvordan vi nedbryder og opbygger det, der er til stede, det, der findes overalt. Tingene holdes frem, vendes og drejes, ses fra mange synsvinkler. Det er bevægelse som form. Forløbet i sig selv er bevægelse, med korridorer, blindgyder, sale og saloner, afgange og ankomster. En ornamenteret beretning, der optager synet og sansen, til glæde for tanken og refleksionen.