Getting Ready for Japan - Something there

 -We are currently preparing two performances in Japan.


Project for OuUnPo Japan, Yokohama, 4-5pm, June 23, 2013 – Fatos Ustek and Per Huttner.
Background
Taking the starting point in Nobel Laureate, Samuel Beckett’s 1974 poem with the same title, Ustek and Huttner will be investigating how a poem is the opposite of stability and stasis and how it is informed by the outside world. The poem will be  recreated in three dimensions and focus on the senses beyond vision.

The performance is public and will be performed in the public space of Yokohama harbour. The poem will be divided into 28 different parts. Some of these will be presented in words, others by objects, smells, tastes and sounds.


In order to experience the poem, individual members of the audience will be blindfolded and lead around the circular structure. The 16 OuUnPo members will read the Japanese translation of the poem (word for word – not a poetic translation). Since some of the words appear more than one time – the same OuUnPonian will have to move around the circular structure and repeat the word/action.

Each OuUnPonian will wear a t-shirt with the word/text written on it in the two languages. The words will equally be written in chalk around the circular structure enabling the OuUnPonians to keep track of when they need to perform.

Project for OuUnPo Japan, Spiral 10.30- 12.00am, June 25, 2013 – Fatos Ustek and Per Huttner.

Background
Taking the starting point in Nobel Laureate, Samuel Beckett’s 1974 poem with the same title, Ustek and Huttner will together with the other 13 other OuUnPonians and a select number of members of the Japanese audience carry out a sonar/mathematical investigation. Together they will explore the potentiality of the poem - along with how an activation in space and time can stimulate reflection on this. The Araki piece, which in itself is a reflection on experience versus image (inside outside) and his relation to the other (subject/object), offers a perfect backdrop for the experiment.

The Journey will start at the entrance of Spiral and into the staircase and the Araki piece. Ideally we would like to round of the performance with a discussion with Araki about how he interacts with the people in his photographs and how he sees the relationship between interior and exterior worlds of the human mind.

The research will be carried out in two parts.

Part 1. The Performance
1.    Each OuUnPonian will wear a t-shirt with the word/text written on it in the two languages (the same as in Yokohama – see above.).
2.    The performance will start at the bottom of the stairs. The group will read the whole poem in a collaborative effort (where each OuUnPonian will read their individual 28th of the poem.
3.    The group will then start moving up the stairs repeating their given phrases. They will try to memorise their movements and then repeat the motion in reverse as the descend the stairs.
4.    The session will end with the poem being read backwards.
5.    The whole sound of the whole session will be recorded.



Part 2. The Photography session
1.    All the performers will be photographed wearing the T-shirt with their word/phrase written on it. The images will be taken in front of the Araki piece in the staircase.
2.    In this way the poem can be recreated as a photo series.
3.    Huttner and Ustek will create a video using the sound from the performance and the photographic material.