The Spectator

Vibrates in a frequency of 16 Kilohertz

Performance

The Spectator is here today, he sits silently in the dark and waits. His face is green, he longs for freedom and food. The Spectator feels the warmth and recognizes the subtlest of sound. He vibrates in a frequency of 16 Kilohertz.

In The Spectator the audience participates in a dance dedicated and perform for one single and unknown spectator, whose identity remains a mystery till the end of the performance. The Dance that the audience performs for the “spectator” will make sense only later when his identity is revealed. What Piña and Zimmermann create is a dancing grass field made of audience members moving their arms and heads at the same time, all lighten in green. Some members of the audience collaborate in creating the soundtrack for the performance when instructed to make music with bottles partially filled with water.

At the end of the performance the audience discovers that the dance they just performed is dedicated to an insect, namely a grasshopper, a small spectator who is sitting in the audience tribune behind the curtain that separates stage from spectators lighten with a tinny spot light. Piña & Zimmermann interview the spectator with a camera and microphone trying to grasp his opinion from his body posture and “gestures”. A critic to the passivity of the society of spectacle that offers a reflection on the role of the performer and what for whom and how can he deliver his artistic work.