VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES – Laboratorio para teatro virtual
(VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES – laboratory for virtual theatre)
(2008 – 2011)

The Virtual Performances Project consists of a series of virtual-theatrical interventions via Internet videoconferencing. It is conceived as a work-in-progress, open for new elements, themes and participants, in order to be able to react flexibly to incidents and current events. It consists of a series of different set-ups in different locations and interrelated in a network and with various topics using documentary theatre procedures with fictional elements. It is precisely for these features that it has the subtitle “virtual laboratory for theatre.”

Virtual Performances is a mix of disciplines, it contains elements of theatre, visual arts and public intervention. It experiments with new technologies as artistic tools, and wants to explore the new possibilities of communication by means of New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTICs) and reflect on their consequences. The project is situated along the boundary between fiction and non-fiction, close to the documentary theatre, and is interested in integrating science into arts and arts into science.

The original idea was conceived by Meret Kiderlen (Germany), Carolina Defossé (Argentina) and BiNeural-MonoKultur (Christina Ruf + Ariel Dávila / Germany, Argentina). Several artists from different countries like Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Spain were involved in its development.

Since the end of 2008 we started to work around the idea of using the new technologies of information and communication such as for example Skype (videoconference via internet) as a medium for scenic action.

We ask ourselves: How could we interact, from the point of view of scenic-performative arts, through this medium of communication?

As a result of the meetings and exchanges between our continents and our research on the artistic possibilities it offers we have produced the following works so far:
– “Skype me up to the Stars!” (2009)
– homo-migrator.www (2011)
– Conectados (2011)

The following other smaller and experimental productions were also made:
– Lpz.-BsAs 15min (as part of the Argentine Film Festival in Leipzig, 2009)
– Open rehearsals of the process of homo-migrator.www at the end of the artist residency Nau Côclea, Catalonia (Spain) (2010) and as part of the performance event Epipiderme in Lisbon (Portugal) (2010).

Open rehearsals of homo-migrator.www
In terms of topic we were planning that this new version of the piece of documentary theatre with fictional elements would revolve around the issue of migration in general and in relation to the WorldWideWeb (www):

Migration of people, but also migration of data, goods, information.

How many times do we have to show our documents to a police authority?
Will an avatar or virtual profile on the network need an identity document in the future?
What is a foreigner, what does it mean to be in another place in the age of cyberspace?
These were the main issues we wanted to address during the research process of creating the new Virtual Performances project that ultimately resulted in the work homo-migrator.www presented at the International Theatre Festival MERCOSUR, Cordoba (Argentina), 2011.
CAST – Open rehearsal of homo-migrator.www in Epipiderme – encontros à volta da performance, Lisbon (Portugal), 2010.
Conception:
Meret Kiderlen (Leipzig, Germany) and BiNeural-MonoKultur (Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf)
Direction: BiNeural-MonoKultur
With: Ieltxu Ortueta Martínez (Sao Paulo, Brasil) on the virtual stage and Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf on the real stage.

CAST – Open rehearsal of homo-migrator.www in the residency Nau Côclea, Catalunya (Spain), 2010.
Conception and direction:
Meret Kiderlen (Leipzig, Germany) and BiNeural-MonoKultur (Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf)
With: Ieltxu Ortueta Martínez (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Meret Kiderlen (Frankfurt, Germany) on the virtual stage + Ariel Dávila and Christina Ruf on the real stage.

“Lpz.-BsAs 15min.”
First public experiment conducted in the third Argentine Film Festival in Leipzig (Germany). 2009.

We approach the medium from the question of whether we are dealing with art that is more cinematic or theatrical. Because the receptive situation resembled a film presentation: A group of spectators watching a screen.
We started a game of putting together a live action mini-movie: You see a scene with girl in her apartment, waiting for her boyfriend. When he arrives, they have a fight, the boyfriend leaves, and she is left alone again.
We use the defects that occur with a medium such as videoconferencing via the Internet (connection failure, sound problems, or other technical failures); these supposed (or real) technical failures become an excuse for the actress to make personal explanations, read a letter or put makeup on in front of the camera for a few minutes before restarting the “scene”, or “take”.
This way we also showed the theatrical side: everything the audience sees happened live and without the possibility of editing and invisible repetition. In the repetition the construction can be seen and the fictionalization of the interruptions enables contact with the public and the presentation of this new artistic medium/device.

CAST “Lpz.-BsAs 15min.”
Idea: BiNeural-MonoKultur, Carolina Defossé, Meret Kiderlen
Concept and development: Carolina Defossé, Meret Kiderlen
Direction: Meret Kiderlen
Acting: Carolina Defossé
Video: Ivo Aichenbaum