Category Archives: Criticism Without Borders

Poster for Pylade staged by Ivica buljan and Great Jones Repertory Company

LA MAMA ETC | Pasolini’s PYLADE + Ivica Buljan = The Best Play of the New York Season

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s PYLADE, as astonishingly staged by the Croatian stage director Ivica Buljan and La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Company (GJRC), is the theatrical event of the NY season.

Poster for Pylade staged by Ivica buljan and Great Jones Repertory Company

LA MAMA ETC | Pasolini’s PYLADE + Ivica Buljan = The Best Play of the New York Season

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s PYLADE, as astonishingly staged by the Croatian stage director Ivica Buljan and La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Company (GJRC), is the theatrical event of the NY season.

Poetry Matters e.e. cummings

POETRY MATTERS | A gentle poet gives a timely, passionate defense of the poetic.

Author Jay Parini argues that poetry offers a way to sanity and clarity, helping us to see ourselves and our world.

Poetry Matters e.e. cummings

POETRY MATTERS | A gentle poet gives a timely, passionate defense of the poetic.

Author Jay Parini argues that poetry offers a way to sanity and clarity, helping us to see ourselves and our world.

Actors Jörg Pose and Katharina Behrens in Andreas Kreigenburg's "From the Life of Marionettes" | Photo courtesy of Dramaten

MOVIES INTO THEATER | I can’t believe it’s not Ingmar Bergman’s film (part 2)

This is the second half of a 2-part essay. The brand name of Ingmar Bergman is now a system of signs that express other ideas.

Featured
Actors Jörg Pose and Katharina Behrens in Andreas Kreigenburg's "From the Life of Marionettes" | Photo courtesy of Dramaten

MOVIES INTO THEATER | I can’t believe it’s not Ingmar Bergman’s film (part 2)

This is the second half of a 2-part essay. The brand name of Ingmar Bergman is now a system of signs that express other ideas.

Featured
Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman is seen talking during a press conference in Stockholm in this May 9, 2023 file photo where he presented his latest TV-project "Faithless." He was 89 years old when he died.  |  AP Photo by Gunnar Seijbold)

MOVIES INTO THEATER | I can’t believe it’s not Ingmar Bergman’s film (part 1)

So what happened to change the Bergmanian tide? Money and the swift canonization of a once reluctant Swedish dramatist-turned-film-icon are the quick answers.

Featured / One comment
Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman is seen talking during a press conference in Stockholm in this May 9, 2023 file photo where he presented his latest TV-project "Faithless." He was 89 years old when he died.  |  AP Photo by Gunnar Seijbold)

MOVIES INTO THEATER | I can’t believe it’s not Ingmar Bergman’s film (part 1)

So what happened to change the Bergmanian tide? Money and the swift canonization of a once reluctant Swedish dramatist-turned-film-icon are the quick answers.

Featured / One comment
"Persona" | Photo by Jan Versweyveld

WITHOUT BORDERS | Screw Ingmar Bergman’s films. Go see his screen texts on stage, Sept. 3 to 5

What’s the point of seeking to certify a heartbreaking work of stagecraft by comparing it to Bergman’s cinema aesthetics?

___

"Persona" | Photo by Jan Versweyveld

WITHOUT BORDERS | Screw Ingmar Bergman’s films. Go see his screen texts on stage, Sept. 3 to 5

What’s the point of seeking to certify a heartbreaking work of stagecraft by comparing it to Bergman’s cinema aesthetics?

___

Tino Sehgal

PERFORMANCE DESIGN | What’s the Haps?

Three musings on visual-art projects. One nagging question: “But is it Performance Design?”

Tino Sehgal

PERFORMANCE DESIGN | What’s the Haps?

Three musings on visual-art projects. One nagging question: “But is it Performance Design?”

Randy Gener by Rivka Katvan

Let’s Get to Know Each Other

  What I do I need to cover or address in this media project so I can continue to engage your mind and heart? Please share what stories you would like to see reflected on this media project:    

Randy Gener by Rivka Katvan

Let’s Get to Know Each Other

  What I do I need to cover or address in this media project so I can continue to engage your mind and heart? Please share what stories you would like to see reflected on this media project:    

Rodríguez Calero, "Transcendent", 1999, Acrollage painting, 24 x 18 in.

NUYORICAN FIND | Caught in the glories of race in Rodriguez Calero’s urban paintings

I was so fascinated by the man in Calero’s “Transcendent” that I kept circling back to it. Is it a black man? Oh, wait. The painter is a Nuyorican. What gives?

Rodríguez Calero, "Transcendent", 1999, Acrollage painting, 24 x 18 in.

NUYORICAN FIND | Caught in the glories of race in Rodriguez Calero’s urban paintings

I was so fascinated by the man in Calero’s “Transcendent” that I kept circling back to it. Is it a black man? Oh, wait. The painter is a Nuyorican. What gives?

@ Randy Gener

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM | Cuban-American Conceptual artist delights with his curtain of golden beads

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” Golden (1995) asks of gallery owners and curators to use these beads as room dividers through which any viewer must pass.

@ Randy Gener

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM | Cuban-American Conceptual artist delights with his curtain of golden beads

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” Golden (1995) asks of gallery owners and curators to use these beads as room dividers through which any viewer must pass.

Samuel Buggeln 25weeksbsas.blogspot.com.ar/

REPORT FROM THE FAR FAR SOUTH | Encountering an exciting Argentine voice: Santiago Loza

This is part of a series of U.S. artist Samuel Buggeln’s special reports from Buenos Aires.

Samuel Buggeln 25weeksbsas.blogspot.com.ar/

REPORT FROM THE FAR FAR SOUTH | Encountering an exciting Argentine voice: Santiago Loza

This is part of a series of U.S. artist Samuel Buggeln’s special reports from Buenos Aires.

Arab Fund for Arts and Culture

DEADLINES | 2-minute videos sought for Arab Fund’s “Why Culture?” competition

AFAC is now tossing the question into the field of pictures in motion, videos and animation. AFAC has opened the call for the “Why Culture? Video Competition,” and the challenge is: Can you create a 2 minute video that delivers a concept on why culture matters? The competition is open to everyone.

Arab Fund for Arts and Culture

DEADLINES | 2-minute videos sought for Arab Fund’s “Why Culture?” competition

AFAC is now tossing the question into the field of pictures in motion, videos and animation. AFAC has opened the call for the “Why Culture? Video Competition,” and the challenge is: Can you create a 2 minute video that delivers a concept on why culture matters? The competition is open to everyone.

Bulgarian artist HR-Stamenov

PERFORMANCE DESIGN? | A ghost train from Bulgaria, composed of sound and lights, speeds through Berlin’s city center

HR-Stamenov’s The Phenomenon of W24°58’59,43″ N42°07’55,29″ is very much a site-specific, media, sound and light installation. This time, he toys with the image of a ghost metro train which has traveled throughout Europe and suddenly appears in Berlin. It ignores physics, gaps between buildings, space and time.

Bulgarian artist HR-Stamenov

PERFORMANCE DESIGN? | A ghost train from Bulgaria, composed of sound and lights, speeds through Berlin’s city center

HR-Stamenov’s The Phenomenon of W24°58’59,43″ N42°07’55,29″ is very much a site-specific, media, sound and light installation. This time, he toys with the image of a ghost metro train which has traveled throughout Europe and suddenly appears in Berlin. It ignores physics, gaps between buildings, space and time.

Tino Sehgal

BUT IS IT PERFORMANCE DESIGN? | Tino Sehgal’s “This situation” dreamily implicates the art experience, and quite likely elite academia itself

“The situation” is purely experiential, engaging viewers immediately in real time and space to implore a questioning of the art experience, and experience itself. If “This situation” is not a work of performance design, I don’t know what is. It is not surprising to learn that Sehgal is a trained choreographer; he composes what is then physically interpreted by non-actors, actors and dancers, and in the case of “This Situation,” intellectuals.

Tino Sehgal

BUT IS IT PERFORMANCE DESIGN? | Tino Sehgal’s “This situation” dreamily implicates the art experience, and quite likely elite academia itself

“The situation” is purely experiential, engaging viewers immediately in real time and space to implore a questioning of the art experience, and experience itself. If “This situation” is not a work of performance design, I don’t know what is. It is not surprising to learn that Sehgal is a trained choreographer; he composes what is then physically interpreted by non-actors, actors and dancers, and in the case of “This Situation,” intellectuals.