More or Less Infinity

CIE 111
More or Less Infinity
Aurleian Bory and Phil Soltanoff

written by Nataša Tepavčević

The hybrid play, the visual spectacle that opened 42Bitef08 in Belgrade, was made by Phil Soltanoff, the MAD DOG theatre troupe director and Aurelieane Bory, the CIE 111 art director. The object of their theatre study is line as the art element, a time line, a line which turns into a body gaining a shape whereas the performance itself is a part of a collaborative project called Space Trilogy which had a common task of exploring the language of gestures and choreography.
In the first part of the performance, a line made of plastic hose, a thread and light effects dances-draws on its own, while in the second part it becomes accompanied by actors-acrobats whose shapes are dematerialized by their stage movements.

The coined phrase more or less infinity stems from two types of discourse. One is taken from mathematics and is based upon the definition that line goes from minus infinity to plus infinity, while the other one speaks by the language of abstract modernist art. The authors of the performance use the logic of creating an abstract painting as a method which is somewhere between dance, circus, theatre…

The performance does not aim at representing some particular situations or events, states or individuals. We are faced with a, so called, universal, non-verbal language of spectacle which offers fun for the eyes, as Schlemmer has put it. Is it the same language used by Bitef as a specific form of social and institutional spectacle? Can we use the visual-theatre spectacle to detect the very qualities Bitef would like to be recognized by? We are aware of the fact that gestures always belong to politics as well as to aesthetics, i.e. that there is no such thing as non-political aesthetics, no matter how much it might be trying to hide its political quality.

What kind of gesture does the performance deal with, anyway? Mechanics of body movement and psycho-motor coordination are structured in accordance to the rules of mathematical constructing or similar to the procedures which are used to create an animated character in digital technology. An image of digital era – as a social era which does not fit within any context or any historical moment – is created by the use of abstract painting. Visual art is introduced into the theatre art by means of minimalism, constructivism and mostly by means of optical art based upon illusionist principles. After we have clearly understood the stylistic fusion, we realize that we can neither feel nor envision the spectacle which is happening in front of us and because of us, no matter how much it is required by the form itself. Actually, the network of instructions, knowledge we possess prevents us from simply enjoying because the joy as such does not exist. What we felt, saw and read is what we had been educated to perceive as important.


Asked to reveal the message of the performance, the authors said: “There isn’t any, just plunge into pure sensation”, to which I would add: Plunge into pure sensation as if it was possible.