Would you go to a performance you know nothing about?
In 2021 Emelie Zilliacus and Martin Paul created the performance Exhibit for ANTI Festival through the Reality Research Center’s Residency of Impossible Performance without sharing any details about the piece with anyone. The content of the performance was a secret to everyone except the working group. Now Hangö Teaterträff has invited Exhibit to their festival. And once again, the content of the performance is a secret to the festival arrangers and the audience.
But why does a festival want to put up a performance they know nothing about? Who would want to attend a secret performance? And why is the performance secret to begin with? In a world where everything is marketable, every piece of art is a commodity and every artist is a brand, what is a secret? Is it a marketing trick or a counter-movement to commercialism? In an age where art depends so heavily on visibility, Exhibit lies in the fringes. A black hole, devouring the curious into its gaping void.
Exhibit is an original production by Reality Research Center and it premiered at ANTI Festival on the 15th of September in 2021.
Emelie Zilliacus and Martin Paul are both actors who graduated from the Theatre Academy in Helsinki in the summer of 2021. In their work Zilliacus and Paul want to examine theatre as a happening and investigate the social and economic circumstances surrounding it. Zilliacus and Paul are both members of Reality Research Center, in addition to this they work as artistic directors for the performance collective Glitcher. Malin Nyqvist is a director, writer and a DJ. Zilliacus, Paul and Nyqvist have previously collaborated in Distant Dildos, a video performance that was a part of Hangö Teaterträff in 2020.
Performers & concept: Emelie Zilliacus & Martin Paul
Sound design: Malin Nyqvist
Production: Reality Research Center