MEDIATHEK

KLIP opens with a video caption which states: "This work consists of carefully selected coincidences. Any form of intellectual or mental insight or anything which resembles cohesion is quite unintentional." The piece is performed by 2 men and 2 women, on a stage set in which one of the focal points is a ham, which hangs down from the ceiling. The piece ends with one of the male characters himself hanging, much like the ham, while doggedly attempting to sing his way towards redemption. KLIP features both live and recorded music and song and is inspired by the art of Kurt Schwitters, the famous collage-ist and DADAist. Much of the raw material in KLIP–spoken and sung texts, characters and images – has been created by playing parlour games. These resemble the drawing and folding games familiar to children. A story, or description of a situation is created by each player writing a line or phrase on a piece of paper. The paper is then folded and sent on to the next player who repeats the process. The random products of these games were arranged into a structure in time. This structure was then itself repeatedly cut up, pasted and rearranged. The sound and music in KLIP are similiarly looped, fragmented and shredded. The end result is a world of image and sound which possesses a dream-like quality, sometimes whimsical yet often nightmarish. It is a world in which sense and cohesion seem to lurk just out of sight and which is ultimately and violently clipped to pieces. Drawing inspiration from the DADAists, and Monty Python, KLIP takes us on a descent to chaos, although the mayhem is always tightly choreographed and finely orchestrated. Funny, provocative, disturbing and visually inventive, with moments of great beauty, it has reduced audiences to both laughter and tears. As in Schwitters art, the playfulness with which seemingly banal material is recycled to reveal new meanings becomes itself a celebration of human existence in all of its absurdity, pointlessness and wonder; what Hugo Ball described as “a piece of tomfoolery from the void, in which all the lofty questions have become involved”. In 2012 the Committee of Danish Arts Foundation gave the following reason for awarding the KLIP their special prize in 2012: "Livingstones Kabinet have demonstrated what an original and unique feature they are in the Danish theatre landscape… Bravo."