A Guided Tour of the Exhibition:
For Soprano and Handbag
Site specific performance for museums or theatres with film and art objects — premiere 2016
Conceived by Joanna Dudley and William Kentridge, this groundbreaking performance for museums, concert halls and performance spaces redefines the traditional guided tour. Instead of interpreting the artworks, it offers a moment of pure poetic pleasure, transforming the experience into a theatrical mise-en-scène.
While typical guided tours aim to deepen visitors' understanding, they often confine artworks to the past, immobilizing and silencing their essence. Dudley and Kentridge's performance challenges this notion by allowing the artworks to speak for themselves. The Guide, embodied by Joanna Dudley, soon becomes an integral part of the art. Through her performance, she transcends the conventional role of a tour guide, merging with the artworks and becoming a living, breathing element of the exhibition. Her presence and voice animate the space, creating an immersive experience where the boundaries between the guide, the art, and the audience dissolve. This seamless integration enhances the viewers' connection to the art, inviting them to experience it in a new, dynamic way.
The libretto was originally put together in Dadaist fashion by William Kentridge, using fragments from studio notebooks and other sources.
Excerpts of “The Guided Tour of the Exhibition: for Soprano and Handbag”
A Guided Tour of the Exhibition for Soprano and Handbag ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
William Kentridge gave Joanna Dudley the libretto as seen above, to use as a base for The Guided Tour. Joanna Dudley proceed to improvise with these texts and recompose them. Kentridge and Dudley together then set the vocal improvisations and created the choreography for each film or in the exhibition context, for each room. Other texts and songs worked into the libretto include a lullabye from Swaziland, a love song from Marseille and stories from the Russian abusurdist poet, Daniil Kharms and excerpts from Woyzeck by Georg Büchner.
A Guided Tour of the Exhibition: For Soprano and Handbag liberates the artworks from interpretation, letting them resist and defy conventional explanations. This performance serves as both an accompaniment to the exhibition and a bold refutation of traditional art presentation, inviting audiences to engage with the art in its most vibrant and dynamic form.
A Guided Tour of the Exhibition for Soprano and Handbag was premiered at The Gropius Bau in Berlin and has been shown at major venues throughout the world including The Louisiana Museum, The California Institute for the Arts, The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, The Art Gallery of South Australia, The Whitechapel Gallery London, MUDAM Luxembourg and Manifattura Tabacchi and Firenze Suona Contemporanea in Firenze.
Interview- A Guided Tour of the Exhibition- For Soprano with Handbag GropiusBau, Berlin
Interview- A Guided Tour of the Exhibition- For Soprano with Handbag MUDAM Luxembourg
Credits
Conception: William Kentridge and Joanna Dudley
Vocal construction, choreography and performance: Joanna Dudley
Video designer/editor for individual films: Catherine Meyburgh
Video designer/editor for the overall film used in performance: Žana Marović
Cinematographer for film starring William Kentridge and Joanna Dudley: Duško Marović
Costume: Greta Goiris
"The Guided Tour of the Exhibition" is a Co-production between the Berliner Festspiele / Foreign Affairs, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin and the Coronet Theatre, London.
Photos: Bohumil Kostohryz, Richard Eaton, Christopher Hewitt, Marian Goodman Gallery, Duško Marović