
Melanie Smith. Oscuridades Bucólicas (Tableaux vivants. Seven activations based on the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and parallel to the Polyangular Room by David Alfaro Siqueiros), 2017 Tableaux vivants at La Tallera, Cuernavaca. Photo: Ramiro Chaves.
This multi faceted performative piece was made for La Tallera, Cuernavaca, Mexico. It created spatially complex theatrical perspectives; putting the back stage on the front stage whilst making the work place a continuous exhibit. Siquieros’ ex studio became a studio, where carpenters, students, local seamstresses, stage designers and a restoration specialist, came together to recreate a mixture of tableaux vivants from Bosch and Brueghel the Elder’s paintings. Over three months seven live activations from fragments of the original paintings were made with students from the local theatre school, and were simultaneously recorded on nine different security camaras. During the activations, musicians played accompanying interpretations, conjoining unfinished fragments and multiple itineraries. This whole process produced a lapsus of bodies and histories while questioning the stasis of time and form.
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Exhibition view of Oscuridades Bucólicas (Tableaux vivants. Seven activations based on the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and parallel to the Polyangular Room by David Alfaro Siqueiros), 2017, at La Tallera, Cuernavaca. Photo: Ramiro Chaves.