STILL LIVES 

What meanings do concepts such as ‘Mystery’, ‘Secret’ or ‘Spirituality’ have for people in the 21st century, the majority of whom were born in cities and grew up in predominantly regulated and controlled environments? Does the ‘Child-being’, that world-creating, world-perceiving essence, still breathe in us?

In the scenic installation Still Lives, objects make themselves heard and matter starts to dream. On a monumental plastic sheet, the waves of an anarchic ocean appear and an upside-down waterfall guides us as we dive into the regressive dimensions of our perceptions.

Against a reflective black hole, a light clock sets a constant rhythm, revolving like a nocturnal sun. Two women appear and disappear, trying to hold onto fragments of daily life which intrude into empty space. Is it a hopeless ritual or a pointless game? In this state between waking and dreaming, the spectator is an eyewitness to an imaginative landscape never before seen.

There are two ways of reading the title Still Lives, on the one hand it stands for more than one still life, painterly, motionless objects; on the other hand it can be understood as ‘(it) still lives’. Still Lives hopes and demonstrates that our senses and abilities can be felt in all aspects of the world and that they still live inside us.

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"Naoko Tanaka’s performance “Still Lives” at the Sophiensæle opens the perceptive apparatus of her audience like a conjurer – making them receptive to the tiniest changes..!.

BY TOM MUSTROPH / 12.02.2018 / TAZ ---> read the whole article

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Interview // Naoko Tanaka on ‘Still Lives’ at Sophiensaele

"installation performance ‘Still Lives’ transformed the theatre into a mystical landscape filled with creeping shadows and rotating spotlights...."

VON BEATRIX JOYCE / 14.02.2018 / Berlin Artlink ---> read the whole article

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