MEDIATHEK

The duo aside create contemporary music theatre.

They develop performances and compositions which are tailor made for each performance space, its location, its programme and its audience. Aside examines, deconstructs and challenges the expectations of each specific audience found in each specific venue.

The basis for aside is the concert stage in all its forms. They draw their material from that which is unintended, private, uncontrolled, uncomfortable, accidental, mistaken and attempts to be hidden. Aside enlarges and transforms this material. Alongside purely musical material this is an essential element of aside.

Aside thereby blurs the boundaries between performance and composition, between sophistication and diversion.

They work within the space that can open between what is intended and the outcome, between expectation, disappointment and fulfillment.

Whilst performance on stage is the basis, this is to be understood as a metaphor for personal performance in general, raising questions such as: what kind of image, abilities or perfection is expected and what happens when the intended image of success, calm professionality and coolness begins to crumble?

In the Mojo Club for the 150% Made in Hamburg Theaterfest 2014, Aside created a performance specifically for this space, event and public. They played with the expectations of the audience and the rituals and unwritten rules of performance. By revealing the inner life of the performer, peeling back the perfect facade, the performance celebrates the reality behind the mystique.

Mojo's hip image demanded a high gloss, multimedia extravaganza. This polished display created a set of expectations in the audience which Aside could begin to dismantle. Technical failure, fear, pretension and personal conflicts come to the surface revealing what bubbles under the calm surface of performance. The performers battle with their private fears, the gap between the image they have of themselves and that which they present to the audience, they clash with each other and lose their way in the labyrinth of artistic jargon.

By taking performance itself as the subject matter Aside highlights that which (when all goes well) usually remains unconsidered and hidden. By forcing this confrontation with sometimes uncomfortable reality it provides an opportunity to reconsider expectations and the traditions that support them. It highlights the falsity of performance and attempts to reveal a more open picture. A picture which could offer a bridge between the performer and aud