Blossoms
2024
Location:
CAM- Centro de Arte Moderna, Gulbenkian (pt)
Format:
Performative installation
Material:
Durational performance. sound, video, monitor, web-based application system, choreograohy, led light, mdf, e-ink display, acrylic glass
Blossoms is a performative installation by artist Nile Koetting for Gulbenkian Museum. The title "Blossoms" originates from the Japanese term "Sakura" (cherry blossoms), which refers to an engaged and pretend audience. This term was originally used in Kabuki theatre during the Edo period, where individuals were hired by the playhouse to enhance the performance by cheering and creating an optimal audience experience. For the renovated exhibition space at the CAM, Koetting collaborates with local performers and dancers, as well as Lisbon-based curator and writer Filipa da Rocha Nunes, to create a durational performative landscape. This work reflects his ongoing research on contemporary PR, cloud management strategies, and the history of audience development. The space is transformed into a performative centre of exploration, examining what it means to be an audience and to observe. Through the project, it unfolds the unique interplay between the embodied self and the environment within a data-saturated society, where all things are harnessed for promotional and symbolic purposes. Translating the essence of our physicality in a world shaped by endless commodification. At the same time, the project cheers, and flourishes the emergence of new communalities centred in CAM and its architecture.
2024
Location:
CAM- Centro de Arte Moderna, Gulbenkian (pt)
Format:
Performative installation
Material:
Durational performance. sound, video, monitor, web-based application system, choreograohy, led light, mdf, e-ink display, acrylic glass
Blossoms is a performative installation by artist Nile Koetting for Gulbenkian Museum. The title "Blossoms" originates from the Japanese term "Sakura" (cherry blossoms), which refers to an engaged and pretend audience. This term was originally used in Kabuki theatre during the Edo period, where individuals were hired by the playhouse to enhance the performance by cheering and creating an optimal audience experience. For the renovated exhibition space at the CAM, Koetting collaborates with local performers and dancers, as well as Lisbon-based curator and writer Filipa da Rocha Nunes, to create a durational performative landscape. This work reflects his ongoing research on contemporary PR, cloud management strategies, and the history of audience development. The space is transformed into a performative centre of exploration, examining what it means to be an audience and to observe. Through the project, it unfolds the unique interplay between the embodied self and the environment within a data-saturated society, where all things are harnessed for promotional and symbolic purposes. Translating the essence of our physicality in a world shaped by endless commodification. At the same time, the project cheers, and flourishes the emergence of new communalities centred in CAM and its architecture.
Text and Script: Filipa da Rocha Nunes
Performed With and By: Adriano Vicente, Felipe Amaya Gonzalez, Julian Pacomio, Maria Abrantes, Sonia Baptista
Styling: Belle Santos
Movement Design: Felipe Amaya Gonzalez
Sound Design: Hideki Umezawa
Moving Image Design: Yoshihiro Inada
Web Development: Elliott Etzkorn
Graphic Design: Minami Shimakage
Production Support: Wiebke Wesselmann, Anna Kato
Curated by: Emmanuelle de Montgazon
