Doug Aitken’s Black Mirror is an exploration of contemporary life on the fringes of society. The central character, played by Chloë Sevigny, exists in a world that has lost track of information and is saturated with change. She represents the people we pass by at airport terminals, hotel lobbies, car rental kiosks. They find and lose each other over and over in the digital wilderness, communicating in quick pulses and travelling long distances for short meetings. For them, there is only now.
Black Mirror is an artwork in multiple forms – both a site specific multi-channel video installation that is presented in DESTE’s Project Space on Hydra, and, in synchronicity, a live theater performance set on a uniquely designed barge floating off Athens and Hydra.
The video installation transforms the interior of the old Slaughterhouse into a space literally covered in black mirrors to create a black-mirrored kaleidoscope. Inside the vortex-like reflective room, the 5-channel synchronized film installation plays the work, to create an evocative personal story of modern movement.
The unique, live theater work is set on a custom-made barge that builds the single story of the protagonist through multiple film projections as well as live performances by the actress Chloë Sevigny, gospel singers, pole dancers, musicians, and a whipper. A live musical score accompanies the piece, performed by percussionists and Los Angeles underground rock duo No Age.
Performance produced in collaboration with the Athens Festival
Performance supported by the DESTE Foundation and the Burger Collection
Official website: http://www.dougaitkenblackmirror.com/
