Carré Noir (2020)
Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square is neither a square nor black. The lines on the side of the famous painting are not parallel, the paint is not applied uniformly and the surface is defective. In this case, and not only in this case, it depends on the viewer’s eye what is visible and what is not. In her new play, the Congolese artist Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe initiates a game of hide and seek with the gaze of the spectators, revealing the difficulties of really perceiving what is happening before our eyes.
Carré Noir is both performance and exhibition. It continually moves the boundaries of what is visible and what escapes the viewer’s eye in the next moment. The piece revolves around the body as a place of resistance, turning against preconceived visions and playing with aesthetic, social and political codes and projections. Carré Noir reveals that the body is a space of opportunities, metamorphoses and transformations, making tangible our own inability to really perceive anything without bias. Admittedly, most of the time, it is very difficult to see what is happening immediately before our eyes. But don’t give up.
Distribution
Concept and choreography Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe
Performance Elisabeth Bakambamba Tambwe, Eric Abrogoua
Video Eduardo Triviño Cely
Light design Martin Schwab
Sound design Lucas Henao Serna
Costume production mukenge/schellhammer
Dramaturgy Philippe Riéra
Production management partner in crime
Production
A co-production by DIG UP PRODUCTIONS and brut Wien in cooperation with Afro_Vibes Performing Arts Festival Amsterdam.
With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Vienna Dance Festival.
With the support of the Federal Chancellery Art and Culture.
