Ostentatious Abstraction

The choreography is based on the so-called Chladni figures – a physical phenomenon discovered in late baroque. In the middle of the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace ballroom, an ob- ject made of special stands upon which these figures are to be manifested is being gradually formed. A group of players, mu- sicians, build individual layers of the object from the outer circumference toward the room’s center, from the lowest stands forming a kind of base up to the highest ones, and put the plates placed on top of the stands into vibration by drawing violin bows along the plates’ edges in a kind of orchestral mode, whereby fine flower dust spread on the plates forms regular figures that emerge and change depending on the plate’s size and shape, and the vibrations’ frequency. The last figure is created on the high stand placed under the monumental chandelier. The player must ascend a few steps to reach the plate and “play” the figure, visible only from above. A person on the balcony over whose shoulder we watch the scene is observing the whole event, while it is not defined whether he or she is involved, supervising, determining, or just present.