The Centre For Dying On Stage #1
18 July–13 September 2014
Opening: Thursday 17 July, 6–8pm
Project Arts Centre
39 East Essex Street
Temple Bar
Dublin 2
Ireland
Hours: Monday–Saturday 11am–8pm
www.projectartscentre.ie
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With artworks and performances by Karl Burke, Dina Danish, Dan Graham, Krõõt Juurak, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Meggy Rustamova
Curated by Kate Strain
Charlot entered from stage left, and without opening his eyes, he began. The skit itself was not so funny. Nor was he, of course. But what they admired was his commitment. It’s all part of the act—this disgruntled old comic, losing his charm and his patience. Hating the audience, exhausted. But still here he is—somehow desperate for their applause. He taps out his tired routine. Stepping forward. A hop and a skip. An inadvertent wobble to one side. He forgets his footing. Dances a little. Stumbles. Looks down. Now see here, this part is crucial: he clips the edge of the stage with his heel, loses his balance, and collapses into the orchestra pit. Falls right down into the basin of a bass drum. The music stops. The crowd go into raptures, laughing uncontrollably at the last of his antics. And there’s Charlot lounging in the limelight, at the centre of everything. Suddenly unmoving. Silence.
In this one swift instant, the drama that until now had been in the hands of the performer is transported into the collective possession of the audience. Held together in the thrill of the performer’s last breath, they are called abruptly into being. “He’s dead!” Someone exclaims. “Everybody! Stay calm!” “Somebody call an ambulance!” The girl to your left faints into the arms of her lover. The front row of the orchestra stand motionless, letting their instruments dangle like handbags. The conductor grasps his baton. Ushers herd the madding crowd, pressing them back into the darkness of the stiles. Full lights. All is bright. The bass drum into which Charlot has collapsed is hauled back up on to the stage. The ushers help, as do some gentlemen from the first and second rows. “Keep calm!” someone shouts. “Is there a doctor in the house?” A white (of course it’s white) sheet is pulled from the wings and gently laid over the body. A shudder. The lady on your left is paler than powder but her date makes no effort to leave the scene. The group is agog. Captivated and buzzing. People are glued to the tragedy. Enthralled. We locate the drama easily: it is here amidst the crowd; the onlookers have become the action. What separated them from Charlot’s onstage illusion has been erased in one fell swoop by the player’s own demise. Death is in the room. Suddenly it can happen to you too, here in the moment of interruption, when the fall of one consciousness urgently awakens another.
This exhibition at Project Arts Centre is the first iteration of The Centre For Dying On Stage, a research body that generates new artistic undertakings anchored to notions of disappearance and performativity. The Centre’s online archive collects and collates instances of deaths that have occurred in performative settings in the public domain.
Click here for more information on the artists, artworks, and weekly performance programme that runs throughout the exhibition.
Project Arts Centre is a multidisciplinary arts centre in the heart of Dublin, Ireland. Throughout 2014 we present TV Museum: The Mini Series, a four-part screening and lecture series by Maeve Connolly, author of the recently published TV Museum: Contemporary Art and the Age of Television. We are also delighted to announce a new commission with Canadian artists Hadley+Maxwell as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2014, and a forthcoming national tour of Wasteland by Eva Koťátková and Dominik Lang commencing in 2015.
Admission to the visual arts at Project Arts Centre is always free.
Project Arts Centre is core funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and Dublin City Council.
