Restaging “Iglu”
From the late 1960s until his untimely death in 1983, French-born artist Guy de Cointet was an influential member of the Los Angeles art scene. His encrypted works on paper and theatrical productions – inspired by the works of Raymond Roussel and the tropes of TV soap opera – were often as mysterious as the man himself.
De Cointet’s performances are surreal sceneries in which ordinary, daily events are linked to specific objects, colours and letters – often in a lucid way. “Iglu” combines an abstract visual vocabulary with television situation comedy, Rousselian word play, and drama. A special role is attributed to sound. For "Iglu", cowriter Robert Wilhite – who often fabricated the objects onstage for de Cointet’s productions – authored music and composed a sound track featuring prerecorded phrases from a Spanish-language course.
As a Frenchman in the USA, Guy de Cointet was very well aware of the imprecision of language, misunderstandings and ambiguous meanings of words. Yet he observed how people still seemed to understand each other, even though their words could be interpreted in different ways. As a result, he sensed that the audience could accommodate to his vision of language as a medium, with its own rhythm, plot and dynamics. De Cointet’s performances stage the question of how reality is perceived and interpreted.
“Iglu” premiered at Vanguard Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, in 1977. Its first restaging took place 33 years later at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, as part of the exhibition "Paying A Visit To Mary". Now the play has its European premiere in Amsterdam. "Iglu" is being performed by Helen Berlant, Allison Byrnes, Carmen Thomas en Leo Tolkin.
“Performance in Residence”
If I Can’t Dance invited Marie de Brugerolle to be the first cultural practitioner to carry out research in the new programme "Performance in Residence". "Performance in Residence" aims to research seminal performances in order to reactivate them by connecting archival research to practice. The restaging of "Iglu” and the lecture at the Stedelijk Museum mark the start of this research period. At the Stedelijk Museum, Marie de Brugerolle will give an introduction to Guy de Cointet’s work and screen a short version of her documentary film.
Lecture & film screening:
“Who's that Guy? About Guy de Cointet”
Marie de Brugerolle
November 11, 2010, 17.00 hrs
Stedelijk Museum
Paulus Potterstraat 13, 1071 CX Amsterdam
Bookings: www.stedelijk.nl, tickets €5 plus museum admission