The director’s intention
I don’t believe fear can be found in a conventional space (gallery, theater); people know they are in a secure environment. That’s how we started to construct spaces that resemble and make us think about fear. Let’s undertake this rational exercise on the subject, where we experience and embrace the slight discomfort that combines humor and strangeness.
Synopsis
A performative installation about one of the most enigmatic emotions—a primal and universal feeling or raw emotion that rules the present sociopolitical climate.
Team
Director: Leta Popescu
Choreographer: Ioana Marchidan
Set design: Bogdan Spătaru
Arhitect: Maria Ghement
Arhitect: Justin Baroncea
Anthropologist:Radu Umbreș
Producers: Simona Abagiu / Elena Stanciu
Curator: Alex Radu
With: Cristina Toma, Lari Giorgescu/Alexandru Tudor, Oana Jipa, Răzvan Mîndruță, Sabina
Lazăr, Sergiu Diță, Andrei Raicu (live soundscapes).
„F _ _ _ _” is part of the OPEN CONTEXT program, founded in 2021 at /SAC @ Malmaison.
Photo credit: Andrei Mărgulescu, Dan Vezentan
Cronici
“We begin entering this space, a space that cannot be measured; it is probably generous because it doesn’t feel crowded, surrounded by white smoke, semi-opaque. We exist merely in this smoke for a while, then the lights dim down, and everything feels heavier and heavier.”
From one side to the other we are invited to explore this space by the performers, by the sounds, noises, and shouts that surround us, and lastly, by our overwhelming curiosity. Or maybe fear? Say, what does the performance title resemble to you: F_ _ _ _,, performative installation? If I inform you that the artists are naked in the majority of the scenes in this performance of 35–40 minutes, then the association with the f-word doesn’t seem to be far from winning the bets. And yet, the F word and the vacant spaces may as well be about FEAR.”
F_ _ _ _,, performative installation, created by Leta Popescu and her team from /SAC, Malmaison, is about fear and personal courage, about shame and confidence. A performance that spins you around in a gloomy and drowning maze forcing you to think about your fears. I got home quite troubled, a little excited, and a bit scared.