Vertex:: an interaction point, an intersection where particles collide and meet. Vertex: a turning point

Multiple points of views and many layers will be created with a live video performance that will intercept several figures moving in a restricted space, those images will be projected at a different location of the performing space.

The piece will feature three different narratives.

The performers will create layers of images with objects and transparencies that will be placed in front of a camera. A movement score will construct a narrative that will reveal their personal journeys.

Vertex is a performance centered on dance, storytelling, visual image, and music that explores the confluence of a moment of peak experience, a turning point  about the real people behind the phrase “collateral damage”

About the creative process….

This piece evolved after a conversation I had with one of my dearest friends, Monica, a visual artist who lives and works in  Buenos Aires. During a phone conversation I told her that I miss painting and working in the visual art field, that I felt that I could not go back to it because I did not paint in such a long time.  I also said that knew that I did not have “the hand” for it anymore. She advised me to gather objects, to place them somewhere and start painting.  What could I loose if I started without any expectations? I did it, I gathered some objects but instead of painting I started playing with the camera, placing transparent sheets of acrylic between the objects and the camera. On the acrylic I could place “floating objects” such as broken mirrors, pictures, smaller objects that I wanted to stand out and float above the still nature I had created. I realized that the thought of using transparencies and objects had a clear influence from conversations I had with Pablo , my husband who was  immersed in some of Duchamp’s work and  was working on a presentation about this artist with his architecture students.

Then after seeing a documentary of Guantanamo, I decided  on using the camera on top of my objects and subjects to create a different point of view than  the frontal one that is possible on stage.

Then I started to create Vertex as a result of thinking of layers , of association of objects to meaning, and how political decisions can affect  people’s lives. I wanted to create short stories that could be performed separately; each story would start and end without any correlation in time or in the dramaturgic. I felt that this format had some clear pattern in the real world, where several stories and facts are happening at the same time in different places of the globe.

I realized that the random objects that I selected were somehow connected, a wooden cat, a broken mirror, a self portrait of my daughter, a small mannequin  with feather wings, a pair of shoes and a stack of  dollar bills. I very clearly realized how this objects were relating to a recent experience of mine about the loss of my house in Buenos Aires, a stolen house, due to  greedy and corrupted laws in Argentina. This is the most personal story and  it was the easiest to start with, for me. Then other objects that I selected told me other stories I also needed or wanted to tell. The connecting thread was the use of the camera, objects and the theme, which was about greedy and corrupt political decisions affecting people’s lives.

The second section or story is about Argentina’s Dirty War victims, which has certainly affected many people’s lives, particularly the survivor children of the missing people. The objects that I selected to carry the story  along with the movement and images are: a men suit, a framed mirror,    a picture of Ruben Correas , a lawyer missing when he was 28 years old , the father of two young children that could not  remember him. The third is about Collateral damage in the Iraq War, a war that breaks my heart because so many young people are affected and become damage physically and mentally for life. The selected objects are: a broken mirror, a doll , a wooden dolly with the head covered trapped in  a glass case and pictures of real collateral damage : civilians and soldiers dead or wounded during the war. The last section is a fast track of the three sections, where certain moments are highlighted but the stories are separated in time but not in space.

The movement material emerged from the work with the objects and the use of the camera place above the performers. We use the floor as if it was a wall and a wall as if it was a floor. The camera hidden and revealing the most intimate details of the performance during the enclosed space has been a remarkable tool that has helped me with the dramaturgy.

The best of all this process has been the dancers that I work with, William Robinson, John Luna, Sinead O’Neill and Olive Prince who has given me hours of research to create the appropriate performance quality and movement material. Their interpretation and collaboration has been a key element in the development of this piece, I am deeply thankful for their personal contribution to this work and to my work in general.

It is my joy to reach out to you to share my creative process, the physical and thoughtful work of the dancers that will perform Vertex. Above all I want to thank for the opportunity to create a thoughtful moment to acknowledge these stories of peak experience, that identifies real collateral damage victims from the rest of the world and how  these victims have endured with their own bodies injustices provoked by bad politics that certainly destroy lives

VERTEX:

Scene # 1: about my house

Scene#2: about our Father

Scene#3: latest News – collateral damage

Scene#4: about all of us

Performers:

Olive Prince

Will Robinson

John Luna

Sinead O’Neills

Music collage:

Cantata #147, BW JSBach and sound score.

Juana Molina – Urlich Sube – Pantera- Itsvan Martha

Installation and costumes by Silvana Cardell

Vertex & The Compromise
Silvana Cardell & Curt Haworth
Friday, October 16, 2009 @ 7:30 PM
Harold Prince Theatre at Annenberg Center

Tickets $25 –   http://www.annenbergcenter.org/tickets/?id=84
Don’t miss two of Philadelphia’s most adventurous choreographers. Argentinian choreographer and dancer, Silvana Cardell presents Vertex – a multi-layered exploration of space through live video performance and movement. Based on Susan Minot’s Evening, Curt Haworth’s The Compromise explores relationships over time and is a cinematic approach to human psychology as it comes to terms with lifelong decisions.