DEATH OF TARELKIN

Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels

February 8 – April 12, 2013

Transformable objects designed after Vavara Stepanova’s set design for the 1922 Vselovod Mayerhold staging of Sukhovo-Kobylin’s play The Death of Tarelkin.

In practice, biomechanics is an actor-training program that includes various physical exercises, circus acrobatics and practice of expressive gestures. Stepanova’s set design responded to the challenge of biomechanics by featuring highly transformable furniture built for the interaction with actors. They were designed to jump, turn, collapse, fold or respond in any way to the actor’s movements. As such, the set was turned into a specially designed playground where the actors physically engaged with their ‘furniture’ and constantly changed its form and function.

Courtesy of Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels; photography by Philippe De Gobert.