THE WILD HEART choreographs cinematic landscapes through the synthesis of imagery, live and recorded sounds, film scores, movement, light, text. Inspired by themes from Jean Luc Godard’s A BOUT DE SOUFFLÉ, THE WILD HEART investigates the nature of film transcribed for live performance. Using Godard’s practice of foregrounding film as film with reflexive techniques, THE WILD HEART incorporates a Reality Show ‘behind the scenes’ look at the cast escalating the wild spirit of the work with humor and introspection. Spectatorship is heightened through varieties of visual experience – live “film” sequences, a recorded reality show, a talk show, and black and white rehearsal footage- that comment on and connect numerous threads into a complex tapestry of live performance.
THE WILD HEART was performed in three galleries at Gavin Brown’s enterprise. Live performance and video took place in the middle gallery. Sound would echo from the left gallery communicating unseen off-screen action; in one distinct moment sound travelled through the wall dividing both galleries to envelope the larger performance space. Light shone from the passage exiting into the right gallery, illuminating the possibilities of lives continuing beyond the filmic structure with each departure. This panoramic arrangement along with the self-reflexive video moments challenged the viewer with the task of unraveling and reconstructing the performance as it progressed. Smaller mobile models of the gallery walls subdivided the space creating ranges of scale and sudden smaller rooms; the gallery walls “danced” along with the performers.
“With THE WILD HEART I continued exploring live performance using movement within the “frame” to investigate a catalogue of elements inherent to this work: action vs. contemplation, the urban landscape, lovelessness, the iconography of words, the power of popular culture, the syntax of sound juxtaposed with image, American culture, the chilling romance with death, the situation of the outsider, the importance of sign, angst, logic and passion.”
choreography and direction: michou szabo
lighting design: joe levasseur
sound design: bobby mcElver
video design: nic petry/dancing camera and michou szabo
set design: michou szabo
costume design: simile allegro
performance: the mill julie alexander . christiana axelsen . andrew champlin . jennifer lafferty . aaron mattocks . lindy rogers . storme sundberg . sandy tillett . christopher williams
premiered at gavin brown's enterprise new york new york april 2012
