Originally, The Final Stage was planned as the restaging, in a black box-like theatre, of the online doctoral publication Reacclimating the Stage (Skenomorphoses), and of the simultaneous, more or less ghostly, reactivation of all the artworks generated in the framework of the doctoral artistic research project (2015-2020) on stage and in the backstage.
In the original plan of the installation, three computers were supposed to be connected to the doctoral publication online, placed on three tables in the middle of the audience and mirrored on three large screens on the stage. Every day three guests would be invited to navigate, simultaneously and during ninety minutes, on the exposition online. Spectators would be invited to attend this hyper-reading session of the three users as if they would attend a performance. The rest of the time the installation was intended to be opened to the audience, for an untimed visit and a free consultation of the publication in situ.
Designed before the spread of the SARS-CoV-2, this plan could not happen as such.
Therefore, The Final Stage turned into another aesthetic object: The Final Stage (Interruptus).
Instead of having the possibility to set the performance as planned, Roumagnac invited, two weeks before the opening, five colleagues at the Performing Arts Research Centre for one-to-one sessions of publication-hyper-reading, during one hour, in a virus-safe environment, and screenshot each surfing session. In the actual new version of the exhibition, these video captures are looping on the three large screens of the installation as a simulation of the performance that should have happened.
The adjustments (ratio, keystone, focus) of these video projections on the screens of the installation are not finalized, intentionally interrupted before being made. An A4 photocopy with the inscription “The Final Stage Performance POSTPONED” is taped in the center of each screen, overlapping the incomplete projection.
Just like the video projection and sound settings (kept raw), the entire exhibition construction was intentionally interrupted two days before the planned end of the building.
Spectators are thus invited to enter this construction-interruptus, lit by the theatre general neon lighting, after putting shoe covers on.
The doors of the theater, as well as that of the backstage exit, are left open, allowing a free circulation from and back to the busy foyer of the Theatre Academy which is currently undergoing big renovations.
Finally, as part of the exhibition, additional new work Ιφιγένεια εν Αυλίδι is installed in the venue Pengerkatu 7 Työhuone, just five minutes walk from Theatre Academy.
The Final Stage (Interruptus) ►
Ιφιγένεια εν Αυλίδι ►
Thank you Heli Litmanen and Theatre Academy TEPA team, Tutke Performing Arts Research Centre, Tuija Kokkonen, Stefano De Luca, Hanna Westerlund, Nina Numminen, Ville Särmä, Paul Flanders, HIAP Helsinki, Outi Condit, Nora Rinne, Karolina Kucia, Tuomas Laitinen and Simo Kellokumpu for helping me realizing this final exhibition!