Daisies and the Sea (3 Photographs taken in Newfoundland, Canada. 2012)

Daisies and the Sea
(Fort Amherst, St. John's Newfoundland. By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2012)

Daisies and the Sea II
(Fort Amherst, St. John's Newfoundland. By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2012)

Daisies and the Sea III
(Fort Amherst, St. John's Newfoundland. By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2012)

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.

Van Gogh: Up Close. An Exhibition at The National Gallery Of Canada (Ottawa. 2012)

I learnt from his paintings, from his way of seeing Nature and the energy of life. I learn about the source of that energy through those brush strokes coming from the roots of the trees and plants, from the earth itself. My feet felt their roots, their own source.

Watching Van Gogh's work in this way he became my Butoh master as well.

http://www.flickr.com//photos/gustavothomastheatre/sets/72157630883733204/show/

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.

How do you defend yourself? (A poem by Gustavo Thomas)

*Translation from Spanish with Tadeo Berjon help.

 

How do you defend yourself?

I

How do you defend yourself from those creatures who are your fears,
from the waves of death and devastation feeding from your past?

Lashings and thrashings,
Body-torturing guilts,
those who deafen you with their screams.

How do you face the sorrow that surges
when the arm of the departed caresses
and you weep without knowing what it was?

 
II

How do you defend yourself from the permanence we experienced in the past?

The hands of your father, or your mother or any of your other dead,
anxiously scratching their head,
the sound from their nails reverberating in your dreams
unsettling you, awaking you surrounded by fear.

How do you look at you without seeing those who were before
in the reflection of the memories of your self, in your own desert?


III

How do you defend yourself from the wound you inflict upon your soul
every time you replay what you thought you'd long ago parted with?

You frown, you beat,
you shut your eyes, clench your eyelids tight,
you yelp as if scaring birds away from you,
with no sound
you live the memory of the other in the morass of your impotent praying.

Why do you hear what others have said only when you are calm? 


IV

Spirits inhabit my chambers too,
their warmth lingering on the objects,
I feel them tepid, like their forgotten portraits.

They're images in the window of my brain,
they harass,
feed from me,
chew my face off,
and feel under attack if I look at them.

From the void they enter my life in hordes,
and set camp for hours, and days...
some have lived during long years buried in my eyes,  
I suffer with their eternity pouring from me
while I frantically try to scratch them away.


Tell me, how do you defend yourself...?

Because I'm like a sepulcher for my own dead.

(Gustavo Thomas. June, 2012)

*

* The original in Spanish:

¿Como te defiendes?

I


¿Cómo te defiendes de esos seres que son tus miedos, de las olas de muerte y destrucción que comen de tu pasado?

Látigos y golpes,
culpas que torturan el cuerpo,
aquellas que te gritan y destrozan tus tímpanos.

¿Cómo enfrentas la tristeza que te invade
cuando el brazo del ya ido te acaricia
y lloras sin saber qué fue eso que te ha tocado?



II


¿Cómo te defiendes de la permanencia de aquello que ya vivimos?

Las manos de tu padre (o de tu madre o de cualquiera de tus muertos)
ávidas se rascan el cuero cabelludo,
el sonido de sus uñas reverbera en tus sueños
al grado que te altera hasta despertarte en miedo envuelto.

¿Cómo te miras sin ver frente a ti a los que te antecedieron
en ese reflejo que es tu recuerdo de ti mismo y en lo desierto?



III


¿Cómo te defiendes de la herida que te infringes a ti mismo
cada vez que vives esa imagen de la que ya te creías partido?

Frunces el ceño, das manotazos,
cierras los ojos, te aprietas los párpados,
truenas los labios como espantando pájaros,
sin sonido
vives la memoria de lo otro en la ciénaga de tu impotente rezo.

¿Por qué cuando te calmas escuchas lo que otros ya dijeron?



IV


En mí también los espíritus pueblan mis cuartos,
su temperatura queda en los objetos,
los siento tibios como sus olvidados retratos.

Son imágenes en la ventana de mi cerebro,
aparecen acosando,
se alimentan de mí,
mastican la carne de mi cara,
piensan que al verlos yo los ataco.

Entran por hordas y de la nada a mi vida,
se quedan por horas y por días;
algunos han vivido años enteros en mis ojos, enterrados,
sufro con su eternidad cayendo de mí
mientras me rasco enfebrecido para tirarlos.

Dime, ¿cómo te defiendes…?


Es que soy como un sepulcro de mis propios antepasados.



(Gustavo Thomas. Junio. 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.

"Maman", a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois at The National Gallery Of Canada (Ottawa. 2012)

Araignée "Maman", a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois at The National Gallery Of Canada (Ottawa. 2012), a set on Flickr.

Louise Bourgeois made several of these sculptures during all her life and they are spread all over the world.

The first time I saw one of these monumental sculptures of spiders with its eggs was at the TATE in London in 2007, but it was the end of the day and was very dark, impossible to take any good photograph in that moment; then, in 2008, I saw another one at Ropongi Hills in Tokyo, and this time it was snowing and foggy, the photographs I took resulted totally blurred. This time in Ottawa during my visit to the National Gallery (Musée de Beaux-Arts du Canada) the day was magnificent, sunny and clear, and the sculpture was stunning from any point of view. When I was watching recalled Bourgeois's words about the piece:

"The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother." (Louise Bourgeois)

I enjoyed that "Maman" spider enormously and I hope you like the photographs...

Dancing My Own Loss (Video from my Butoh vlog. Recorded in Newfoundland)

Dancing My Own Loss 

This was a Butoh improvisation I performed under the lighthouse in Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada.

There was all an atmosphere around: green grass and rocks all around; behind, the lighthouse you see in the photograph; in the front, the sea covered by fog (I could only hear the sound of the waves hitting the rocks and the wind). Everything I tried to follow with my sight was lost in that fog. I felt lost. That was an unique moment for moving. I put some music playing with my phone and started to move.

Butoh is liberating in all senses.

Dancing My Own Loss (From My Butoh Vlog July 27, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

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.

Little Bird and the Changing of the Guard at Parliament Hill, Ottawa(2012)

Little Bird and the Changing of the Guard at Parliament Hill, Ottawa (2012), a photo by Gustavo Thomas on Flickr.

Butoh Vlog (June 17, 2012): Haiku 1

Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (June 17, 2012): Haiku 1

 

 

Butoh Vlog (June 17, 2012): Haiku 1 from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.


This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else.
After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.
The music you hear is not what I was listened to when I was in the training, it was added later.

Esto es parte de mi entrenamiento diario y nada más.
Después de caminar y trabajar algunas posturas e imágenes internas surge una pequeña coreografía; eso es lo que se ve en cada video de mi Vlog de Butoh.
La música que se escucha no es aquella que yo escuchaba mientras entrenaba, sino que ha sido añadida más tarde durante la edición del video.

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.

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach (Toronto. 2012)

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Last Wednesday June 6th, 2012, at AGO (Toronto), the three gods of American Performing Arts talked about their creation of Einstein on the Beach, premiered in 1976. It was an amazing two hours discussion, not only because they talked about this mythic masterpiece of the performing arts but because they were there, alive, in front of us, 35 years later of the creation of it.

I got some interesting quotations (could not be entirely accurate, I wrote them while listening to them):

- Philip Glass: "Einstein of the Beach is unique because there was no, and there is no, other creation like this. There is no references, simple."

- Philip Glass and Robert Wilson: "We didn't know what kind of piece this was, but when it was performed in France, French critics called it "a contemporary Opera", and we thought it was right. It was an opera in the sense of opus, a work."

- Bob Wilson: "Form is boring, what's important is how you feel inside that form."

- Bob Wilson: "You don't have to get anything, just experimenting the piece."


- Bob Wilson: "Einstein on the Beach has a classic structure, but each of us created their own piece inside that structure."


- Bob Wilson: "All the actors, singers and dancers are dressed with the style of clothes Einstein used to wear. All of them are one part of Einstein."


- Bob Wilson: "I worked the stage direction and illumination designed with the three ways of seeing in painting: the hand (close up), the body and the landscape."

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Robert Wilson talks Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Philip Glass talks about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Lucinda Childs talks about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass talk about Einstein on the Beach. AGO. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

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.

Creating "La Danza del Padre" (video of the first rehearsals)

Creating La danza del padre (From Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.
Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog: Creating La danza del padre

Extracts from a rehearsal of La danza del padre.

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.

Einstein on the Beach this week at 2012 Luminato Festival in Toronto

Einstein on the Beach (Photo by Lucie Jansch, from Luminato's site)

Yes, in an unique opportunity that I never thought I had in my life (of course I ignored the permanence of this production from the 70s) Einstein on the Beach, the Opera with music by Philip Glass and stage direction by Bob Wilson, comes to Toronto for some performances at 2012 Luminato Festival.

I'm writing this short post as an introduction to that which will come after listening, on Wednesday June 6, to Glass and Wilson in a discussion panel, and that after seeing the opera itself in its 4 hour-version.

As you can find much information on the internet about the Opera and its importance for the performing arts of the late twentieth century I won't talk more on the subject. But personally I'll do it a little bit:

I've always fantasized about this production and his music, specially since I first saw photographs of  Bob Wilson's direction and later listening to that amazing Philip Glass's music which has followed me throughout my artistic life.  Some of you remember my post about my pain and regret when I was living in Beijing and, because of a trip to London, I was unable to see Pina Bausch and her company in one of his last tours (who would imagine that she would die so soon?), in a performance that included her legendary Cabaret Berlin. I do not want to make the same mistake, Wilson and Glass will be here, together, talking about their creation and I'll be there to listening to them as well. What should I say about the performance? The tickets cost a fortune but I bought them and I'll be seated in the best possible place.

For now I leave you with the material from the festival site:

The Fusion of a Total Artwork: Einstein on the Beach (by Jorn Weisbrodt)

Video promo Luminato

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.