The Seed Eaters
September 23–November 17, 2017
Palais Trauttmansdorff
Burggasse 4
8010 Graz
Austria
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 12–6pm
T +43 316 834141
office@grazerkunstverein.org
New commission:
Emily Mast
On display:
Work by Ruth E Lyons, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Céline Condorelli, Chris Evans with Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Fiona Hallinan, Isabella Kohlhuber, Isabel Nolan, Adam Zagajewski
On reflection:
Ernst Fischer
This season Emily Mast transforms the Grazer Kunstverein with The Seed Eaters—an experimental play and exhibition co-produced with steirischer herbst.
35 mini scenes, a revolving set of players, roving live percussion, edible props and continually shifting roles: The Seed Eaters unfolds as a series of sculptural sets, accompanied by stylized scripts and choreographed gestures that almost anyone can perform—so long as they are game.
Inspired by the awkward and sometimes dangerous space that separates strangers, The Seed Eaters plants connections between people, to engender collusion, teamwork and blind hope, in a social and political moment when it feels like the world might be falling apart. The work emboldens empathy through the collective experience of endings, enacted by way of continuous new beginnings. As a meditation on conclusions, The Seed Eaters creates and holds a space where language, objects, instructions, and participants’ personalities have equal value, if only for a moment, before starting over.
The script was developed in collaboration with playwright Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, the musical score was conceived in collaboration with percussionist Manuel Alcaraz Clemente (Schallfeld Ensemble), garments were designed with dancer and costumer Nikii Henry, and the menu was devised in collaboration with Fiona Hallinan (Fink’s).
For the first five nights of the exhibition, live scheduled performances take place each evening, in both English and German. The 15 opening cast members, all residents of Graz, have been chosen for how little they seem to have in common. Following the live performances, and for the remaining duration of the exhibition, visitors are invited to move around the set at their own pace, guided by prompts and props to embody the play themselves.
The seasonal artistic programme of the Grazer Kunstverein is accumulative. This new production of The Seed Eaters is presented amidst traces of existing works by Ruth E Lyons (Women’s Wear for Worldly Work), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Le Fleuve dans le Ventre / Der Fluß im Bauch), Edward Clydesdale Thomson (The Coming Garden), Céline Condorelli (Things That Go Without Saying), Chris Evans and Morten Norbye Halvorsen (Jingle), Fiona Hallinan (Fink’s), Isabella Kohlhuber (Space for an Agreement), Isabel Nolan (The Provisory Rug, adaptable for past, present and future. [For Marie Lieb]), and Adam Zagajewski (We Know What Art Is). The year-long programme is drawn together under the guiding leitmotif “The Necessity of Art” inspired by author, politician, and dedicated anti-fascist Ernst Fischer.
Grazer Kunstverein is structurally supported by the city of Graz, the Federal Chancellery of Austria Arts and Culture Division, the province of Styria, legero united | con-tempus.eu, and its members. Grazer Kunstverein is part of CMRK. The Seed Eaters is a co-production with steirischer herbst 2017.
