-Mystic and Magic-
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My contribution is to be divided into two sections, each centered
around a spectacular event.
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SEANCE:
The first event is a séance held in the gallery/gallery, to commune with
the specters of the past in order to decode and predict the future. The
séance originated in the spiritualist movement at the end of the nineteenth
century in the United States, but its popularity spread quickly overseas
to Europe. Spiritualism centers around the belief that the dead survive
in a spirit world comparable to our own and communicate with us in séances
via spiritual mediums – people gifted with the ability to pick up spirit
vibrations.
Various avant-garde projects of the early 20th century found inspiration
in Theosophical and Spiritualist movements (see for example Mondrian,
Malevich, Kandinsky, (Klein?), (Beuys?), surrealism). This section is
the mystical portion of the drama.
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Spirit Rap
The spirit drumming penetrates
Your innermost cerebral statees
You plead with him to let you go
The ghost taps out ñ two times for ënoí.
Persuaded to remove your bra
Spirit knockers ñ Ooh la la!
The spirit has you in a fog
Tap two times for ‘What’s up, dog!’
Rhythm has you by the gills
Radio and all its ills
Possessed by the ghostly foe
Once for ëyes’ ñ twice for ënoí.
Don’t listen to the spirit rhythms
If you like to make decisions.
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ESCAPE:
Section two is to be an escape act and exposé. The great escape artist
Harry Houdini was also a well-known critic of the spiritualist movement,
traveling the world to give lectures on the subject and to expose the
methods of fraudulent mediums. Houdini learned some of his own tricks
from spiritualists, but he made a distinction between magic, sleight of
hand as a form of entertainment, and spiritualism, intended to manipulate
the fears and emotions of people for the profit of the medium. In the
dramatic field, Houdini represents a popular entertainer attempting to
challenge the manipulative qualities of the spectacle. In this respect,
Houdini resembles Brecht.
The escape will be performed in the museum/gallery. This is the section
on Magic.
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