Monday, October 31, 2011

A Performance In Carmona, Spain

 Gustavo Thomas during a performance in Carmona, Spain
(Digital work by Gustavo Thomas. 2011)


These are some photographs, digital paintings and two videos from the performance Mary Jordan, Barrett Wissman and myself did in Carmona, Spain, during Ana Corbero and Nabil Gholam's anniversary party in September 25, 2011. 

We didn't prepare anything in advance (before arriving in Carmona), everything was arranged minutes before: Mary and I asked Barrett to play some intense piece at the piano, and we marked the starting and final movement of my displacement inside the open air pool, and that was all. 

Children were there and made feel their presence but that was interesting and almost challenging for all three. Of course the amazing Andalusian landscape we had as a background made our day.

I have to say that this was my first public performance (live) as a Butoh artist (Butohka as it is said), as everything I did before this day had been through internet and closed-door workshops. Curiosities of life.


Mary Jordan and Gustavo Thomas during A Performance in Carmona, Spain.
(Digital Work by Gustavo Thomas. 2011)



 






Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.



Monday, October 24, 2011

Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Temptation of St. Anthony)


Jheronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Tentaciones de San Antonio)
Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Temptation of St. Anthony)


In September of this 2011 I visited the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (the National Museum of Ancient Art) in Lisbon, Portugal; a museum with one of the largest and most neglected collections of art, religious (Catholic) and universal art. Without dwelling on the sad conditions in which some of the works are on display at the museum I’ll go directly to the piece I wanted to share, "Temptations of St. Anthony" (Tentações de Santo Antônio, in Portuguese at the museum) by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch.

As a performing artist I am deeply attracted, in one way or another, to those works of art which "tell stories", and there is nothing I can do about that attraction, so I enjoy when I find those works and try to learn about them. Temptation of St. Anthony is nothing but a bright and brilliant visual account of the story of San Antonio’s temptations, on his walk to sanctity, yes, with the unique way that only El Bosco (Bosch) knew how to do, and thanks to it has become an icon of universal art.

I heard that Bosch, if living in our time, would be a filmmaker and I have no doubts about it, but I'm sure he would be also a photographer and a painter, he would continue to be so. His painting is a recount, without words, and through living deep images, of the moral and physical temptations of San Anthony; each stamp (image or action) is painted in an apparent chaos, but manage to tell stories, and requires little prior knowledge of the life the saint to understand them. Perhaps, if there is no prior knowledge, we wouldn’t know the very details of the historical truth of the man, but we’d know much more of his life, his own images and his inner struggle. Now in our times, surpassed the religious context of the sixteenth century, who cares if this is the story of San Antonio or another character? The piece itself is powerful, appealing, entertaining, well executed, it’s a genial work of art.

This painting is also “dramaturgical” (theatrical), in the sense that Eugenio Barba sees Dramaturgy: as an interweaving of actions, images that have meaning for the spectator.

With “Temptation of St. Anthony” photographs I’m sharing here you will be entertained enough (using the zoom maybe helps you more): with several of these passages, with its characters, with the contemplation of its colors, and with its special way of saying things to the spectator.

What for me is inevitable, watching a painting also as a theatrical piece, for you can be an enriching exploration of another point of view in art, why not trying it?



Jheronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Tentaciones de San Antonio)
Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Jheronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Tentaciones de San Antonio) (DETAIL)
Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Jheronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Tentaciones de San Antonio) (DETAIL)
Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Jheronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Tentaciones de San Antonio) (DETAIL)
Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Jheronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Tentaciones de San Antonio) (DETAIL)
Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)


Slideshow of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch








Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.


Friday, October 21, 2011

"Buy a dog, my lord"


Just a simple Ibsen's dialogue quotation from The Pretenders (circa 1863) which show, in my point of view, that ironic Ibsen of his later years. Even without thinking about the great author who wrote it, this is a charming point:



"Skule- (…) I must have someone by me who will obey me instinctively, believe in me unflinchingly, stand close by me through good days and evil, live only to give light and warmth to my life--someone who, when I fall, must die! What shall I do, Jatgeir?

Jatgeir- Buy a dog, my lord.
"*












* The Pretenders by Ibsen. From Michael Meyer's Ibsen's Biography. Double Day, 1967. Page 210.



Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson critic of the young Henrik Ibsen

The young Henrik Ibsen (1861)
The young Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1860)


 The young Ibsen was insecure, choleric and with a remarkable physical ugliness (at least in the point of view of many of his contemporaries), his personality was worthless for many, as Olev Arvesen writes about him when used to see him "entering L'Orsa's café punctually at two o'clock each afternoon to drink coffee and read the foreign newspapers", around 1858:

"That this man with the threadbare coat, old, soft mormon hat and profoundly unassuming mien would become one of Norway's and Scandinavia's greatest men was an unimaginable thought." (Michael Meyer, Ibsen's Biography)

But at the same time Ibsen owned a great talent for poetry, liked (and could) to write theatre and had the dream-ambition of being the greatest writer of Norway.

But around 1859, at 31, and in the beginning of his life as a playwright, theatre director and poet, he has not succeeded at all. That was the moment of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who was the head of Norwegian young writers, tall, handsome and economically successful artist; it was him who Ibsen wanted to dethrone. The first fights (Ibsen’s attacks to Bjørnson) were charged of misunderstandings, jealousy and suppositions that only were in detriment of Ibsen himself. Yes, the greatest realist writer didn’t have yet that superb personality and speech what would characterize his last years of fame, a man full of cold wisdom.

After a small scandal with Ibsen’s piece The Viking of Helgeland, Bjørnson wrote a letter to Clemens Petersen elaborating a big description of the ambiance around Ibsen and a strong critic to him. It is curious for us today the remarkable tone of power as a writer and artist Bjørnson shows in that letter, more if we think of Bjørnson’s comments at the end of his life, all totally charged with bitterness and envy for Ibsen.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson letter to Clemens Petersen. Bergen, 5 March, 1859:

"The play (The Vikings at Helgeland) hasn't succeeded, though it may seem from a distance to have (…) Ibsen has a little clique of admirers headed by Nyhedsbladet. But every time he has to face the general public everything goes wrong and I've had to go to his aid twice, because Ibsen despite his aberrations is a poet. And I hope some day to get him to be himself and turn away from all this damned pastiche. The day Ibsen admits he is small he'll become a perfectly enchanting poet. I've told him as much pretty plainly, but the result is, he's jealous. He's done all sort of little things to annoy me, and does still. He's angry that I haven't put The Vikings at Helgeland into my repertory. (…) I haven't read his poem 'Gull Cry'; I've heard it's rather affected stuff, and was written largely because Danish monthly said he was lesser writer than me. Now that's exactly the kind of thing that always distracts Ibsen from what he ought to be and do. The point is, he's rather small and gnomish little chap, with no chest or rump, so he feels that as he has no other gifts he has to strain most frightfully when he writes. And so he doesn't write what he'd really like to, and could." (*)


These are very harsh words, but most of them could be the truth, that was the young insecure and sometimes stupid Ibsen; but what a terrible game for Bjørnson because they now only talk to us ironically about his fall and his wrong appreciation of an ambitious man, who “despites his aberration” could become not only the greatest poet and playwright of Norway but one of the greatest of the history of the world.



 
* Ibsen Biography. By Michael Meyer. Double Day, 1967. Page 161.



Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Friday, October 7, 2011

I work with... (Nijinsky)

Every day I'd like to work like this:

"I work with my hands and feet and head and eyes and nose and tongue and hair and skin and stomach and guts"

The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. On Life. Page 44.


Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)


Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)


I've been out for some weeks and it's because I was traveling to Portugal and South of Spain. I went to Spain, to Carmona (near Seville), for a very especial event, the 15th anniversary party of my friends Ana Corberó and Nabil Gholam. Of course I won't talk about that celebration (that's a private matter) but I will share some photos I took of Ana's giant children sculptures.

I'd seen these sculptures when I was living in Beirut (2003-2005) but never with that amazing Andalusian valley as a background and in such quantity, more than 8 sculptures.

Ana Corberó realized these children-shape sculptures after her experience living in Beirut, a city full of contrasts and frame of many Israeli invasions and bombardments, the face of the children looking at the sky, looking at the bombers, was the inspiration.

I'm sure you will enjoy the images...


Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)
Ana Corbero at her studio in Carmona, Spain (2011)
Ana Corbero at her studio in Carmona, Spain (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)




Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

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