MEDIATHEK

[OR] - binary system

[OR] - Alternative A or B

[OR] - 0 (zero) radius - invisible circle - point / dot

[OR]- operation room

It is about the state of "white out" like in a blizzard,

where you are deprived of ability to see,

where you can't recognize anything,

where you don't know where you stand any more,

where you may not know whether you are alive OR dead.

But what distinguishes one from the other ?

Where is the border ?

What is death ?

What is it ?

[OR] was declined in three versions:

[OR] performance

In 1997, dumb type created the show [OR].

Looked from various view points, be it religious, philosophical, medical, cultural or emotional, on a stage flooded in flickering light, with an advanced technique of combining bodies, images, video, sounds and lighting, [OR] is a meditation on the "grey humour" overhanging the space between life and death.

[OR] concert

A concert version of [OR] was performed in Festival Palermo di Scena-S.Maria Dello Spasimo/Palermo, Italy in july 1997 (World premiere)

Composition+performance: Toru Yamanaka & Ryoji Ikeda

[OR] installation

Also entitled [OR], a related installation piece, was commissioned by the Inter Communication Center (ICC) in Tokyo for its opening in April 1997 and is now part of its permanent collection. A new version was purchased by the Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyons (France) in 2000 for the exhibition GRAME/Musiques en scène.

/ CAST & CREDITS /

Creation: dumb type

Visual creation: Shiro Takatani, Toru Koyamada, Takayuki Fujimoto

Sound creation: Ryoji Ikeda, Toru Yamanaka

Conception collaboration: Hiromasa Tomari, Alfred Birnbaum

Performers: Kenjiro Ishibashi - Takao Kawaguchi, Hidekazu Maeda, Seiko Ouchi, Noriko Sunayama, Mayumi Tanaka, Misako Yabuuchi

Management: Yoko Takatani

Production member:

Alfred Birnbaum

Takayuki Fujimoto

Ryoji Ikeda

Kenjiro Ishibashi

Takao Kawaguchi

Toru Koyamada

Hidekazu Maeda

Seiko Ouchi

So Ozaki

Noriko Sunayama

Shiro Takatani

Yoko Takatani

Mayumi Tanaka

Hiromasa Tomari

Tomohiro Ueshiba

Misako Yabuuchi

Toru Yamanaka

/ PRODUCTION /

Production: Dumb Type

World premiere: “Festival VIA” Le Manège Scène Nationale - Théâtre du Manège / Maubeuge, France, 1997

Co-production:

Barbican Centre London

Change Performing Arts Milano

Maison des Arts, Créteil

Epidemic Production

EXPO ’98 Lisboa

Le Festival d'Automne à Paris

Le Manège Scène Nationale de Maubeuge

Stockholm Cultural Capital of Europe 1998

Kampnagel Theater Hamburg

Zürcher Theater Spektakel

[lng/msb] http://dumbtype.com/works/or | http://www.epidemic.net/en/art/dumbtype/proj/or.html [27.04.2020]