«The Audience Takes Over»

Narrative Spaces and Artists’ Games - Rimini Protokoll shows new ways of narration 
by Thomas Oberender

 

 

Abstract

Rimini Protokoll produtions such as «Situation Rooms» and «Home Visit Europe» have given rise to a new form of work based on special localities. Rather than serving the usual function of a set, the locatities are actors in their own right. They have generative power: in effect they provide a fixed framework, with minimal features and rules, that makes the audience into co-actors. Rimini Protokoll uses a narrative space such as the one in «Situation Rooms» to create a performative installation, which instead of closed performances generates open «situations», deregulated presentation formats in which the audience’s relationship to the mis-en-scéne essentially takes the form of a dialogue. Instead of observing something, the spectators step into what is being observed and thus co-create it. The traditional work has been superseded by an inliving room situation, creating a group of team players around a table whose biographies and decisions in the game render the theme of Europe tangible and compelling. In these localities, the narrative is not a commodity served up to be consumed; it’s the result of a joint, playful process of creation.