Falling Upwards
2019
group exhibition and performance series produced by Lagoon Parliament.
Lagoon Parliament’s second production shines a spotlight on the very extremes of physicality. Falling Upwards is inspired by contact sports where a fallen body is a defeated body, where sweat and hormones drip from duelling muscles, confrontation seeks cathartic heat and rituals of friction cause fictional injuries that penetrate human flesh.
The gallery space is an arena housing a central ring, mesh banners suspended from the ceiling lead to the circular platform – site of performance and participatory games. An installation containing a leaked WrestleMania narrative hangs above the contestants’ heads.
A console adjacent to the ring invites viewers to battle each other as Trump v. News channel in an 8 bit video game. Lining the main gallery space on either side are large digital collages mounted on metal frames which address meme wars waged between the Alt-Right and the Left where internet “freedom fighters” clash over causes of “Anomie” – a feeling of alienation and widespread loss of meaning.
A series of video works explores the symbolic status and societal roles of one-on-one combat as spectacle. A separate room at the back of the main space is darkened and insulated, it is a cavity that draws visitors into the folds and sounds of the inner body where show and artifice are stripped away to reveal the soft, hidden face under the mask.
Exhibition text
by Theresa Reimann-Dubbers
by Theresa Reimann-Dubbers
Credits
Produced by Lagoon Parliament at 2 OG Alte Münze
Talk Show ‘I’ll Die for You/ The Greatest Show’ with Bruno Siegrist and sound effects by Zorza
‘Battle’ performances choreographed by Emma Bäcklund
Live Camera: Ranav Adhikari
© Theresa Reimann-Dubbers 2014 - 2023