Homage to the 'Writer' Pablo Picasso
The
project 'Voicing Europe - a homage to the 'writer' Pablo Picasso and his
contemporaties" is the result of a long-term cooperation of Laboratorio
Teatro Tra Le Righe, Berlin, with European Universities in Berlin, Barcelona
and Oxford, the cultural association Guadalupe Lo Spazio Per Le Arti,
Volterra and the theatre com-, panies Replica of Stockholm, Zerbrochene
Fenster of Berlin. The main objective of the'project, aside the development
of new methods of approach towards European languages and literature,
is to introduce an interdisciplinary mode of thought to the research and
transmission of knowledge using multimedia and experimental theatre. We
live today on the threshold of an era that is moving away from a linear,
abstract schematic world. A multi-dimensional, manylayered, complex reality
is opening up, in which new forrns of speech, writing and thought are
becoming necessary. The new media has rendered invalid the linear approach
to concepts of tirne and space, yet has reawakened possibilities for multidirnensionality
and sirnultarleity. As early as the 1920s the introduction of new technologies
was calling into question habits of logical-deductive thought in the sciences.
In physics, the concept of curvatute revolutionized traditional notions
of space, something that was also reflected in art. In painting, an attempt
was made to transcend the purely linear through a multi-dimensional interaction
between figure and background. Cubism is perhaps the best representation
in painting of our acoustic space, as it depicts all the aspects of an
object simultaneously, overruling the classical illusion ofperspective
in favour of an immediate awareness of a totality. In his play Le disir
attrapipar la queue, written in 1941 and presented scenically for the
first time in 1944 by the Leiris and directed by Albert,Camus, Pablo Picasso,
one of the most representative artists of Cubism as a 'writer', carried
this approach further. His play, which he describes as an experiment with
French wordsounds, reveals his wish to extend the multi-dimensional art
form he achieved in painting to artistic forms based on the written word.
The experimental
aspect of Woicing Europe" represents a methodological apptoach towards
learning and the transmission of knowledge that proceeds from the written
text, through vocal and choreographic exploration, to arrive at a performative
representation that embodies this multi-dimensionality. This learning
process, central to the concept of the project, may engender thoroughly
unexpected results, as the foreignness of a new language cannot be overcorne
through the simple translation of word meanings. Only a conscious immersion
in the sound structures of a language can allow it to be discovered and
explored in all its dirnensions and meanings specific to the Personal
and cultural experience of the individual. Theatre is the ideal medium
for this purpose, as it is traditionally a place in which language is
manifested spatially - in sound, gesture and patterns of meaning. Following
this concept, the written words of Picasso's text, analysed by Raffaele
Pinto, Nicola Sani and Adrzej Wirth, have been arranged into a libretto
by Prof A. Wirth and elaborated acoustically by the composer Nicola Sani
to form a composition of French, Italian and German voice and word-sounds.
This composition, Ddshabiller le silence, formed the basis for experimental
work with participants from various European countries, in which individual
response and reaction to the various sonorities and expressive Potential
of different languages was explored. In experimental workshops led by
the choreographer Prof. Ernma Lewis Thomas, the directors Arne Baut-Worch
and jurek Sawka, and theatre studies professor Prof. Andtzej, Wirth, each
language group (English, German, Italian and Sweclish) translated these
word-sound experiments into movement and other spontaneous forms of expression,
in order to explore possible cultural differences in the kinesthetic interpretation
of linguistic sound patterns. The results of the workshops, recorded on
video, inspired the performance Aside by the Swedish director jurek Sawka.
The aesthetics of language are rooted in the spoken word - the particular
beauty of language demands a capacity for sophisticated acoustic perception,
which is, however, moulded by the hearirig habits of a speech community.
Peopie of different nations, even of different regions, hear differently
and therefore interpret similar phonetic and tone structures in dissimilar
ways. This issue naturally arises in the context of European multi-lingualism.
Yet the 'return to the spoken word' heralded by the increasing prevalence
of multimedia does not presuppose corresponding development in the capacity
for perception and expression. On the contrary, an increasing fragmentation
of sensory perception, speech development and thought can be observed,
even among younger generations that have grown up with the new media.
lt is this'return to orality' that forms the basis for the research aspect
of the project. In a series of lectures and seminars, culrninating in
a round table on the "Sonority of European languages and the Return
of Oral Tradition", hosted by the Freie Universität Berlin,
the role of Pablo Picasso as an exponent of 'the culture of the bridge'
was examined and Cubism analysed as a possible precursor'to multimedia
dynamics in contemporary European culture. The results were subsequently
evaluated and discussed with reference to how different linguistic sound
structures can best be conveyed in the developrnent of new didactic methods
for foreign language acquisition. Woicing Europe" represents an attempt
to develop methods based on theatre performed in foreign languages, to
encourage young people in particular to think intuitively and to discover,
not just as abstract knowledge but through real experience, through sensory
experience the beauty of the different European languages.
Teresa Zonno, Berlin