The Scenograhing Art Historian

Day 33. Hectic day. A lot of administration, a lot of no, no, no, and failiures. F...k. Wanted to write about how scenography can become extremely relevant to art historians. Thought about my own way into the realm of expanded scenography. 

I have had a career in the theatre, as a classical and contemporary dancer, and have very clear embodied memories of scenography as a co-creative agent of performance, as well as of scenographers, so practice is very close to my heart. My feet remember the interaction with various surfaces and my body has been inscribed with affective shimmers: the air - the smell - of performance, lighting, costumes, the entire worldmaking, the relational vibration in those magic and material spaces, their layers of history, their social connections. All this haunt me when I teach art history. The smelling narrow spaces of the catacombes of the early Christians...I hope to transform the lecturing hall into a darkish narrow realm, full of coded messages and dangerous practices. For years I have been longing for a concept or a way of thinking that would allow for critical explorations into vibrating complexities of performance, inside or outside the theater. I mean, we teach and research into anything from the early caves to the latest weave of red threads in an exhibition space. For me, both teaching and research are scenographic practices in shared and transformative space.