L comme litote
IAC, Villeurbanne, France 2010
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 2015
Collection du FNAC
Replicas of Robert Morris‘s L-beams of 1965 were produced, their dimensions altered by transposing the original measurements from inches to centimeters. The performance consists of a series of reading of the same monologue, punctuated by extended manipulations of the three objects. Several performers take turns telling the same story (an encounter with a stranger, late at night, with a disquietingly ambiguous ending) in six different ways, altering its mood by shifts in their tone, as well as by cuts in the text. In between each monologue, two other performers manipulate the three replicas, composing and recomposing them in an improvised sequence of arrangements. The work was inspired by a simple premise found in Morris’s work: how a single form can be perceived differently in space, depending on its placement. Both the text and the sculptural forms remain identical throughout the duration of the performance, what changes is their presentation, their orientation, and their inflection.
