So much amazing creativity in the world, so little time! But we’ve still found a few moments to put pen to paper, sharing the people and art that have been inspiring us this week. Enjoy.

- - -

La Distance by Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues is a remarkable Portuguese playwright and director who we rarely see in Australia. He is also the director of Avignon Festival!

Tiago’s latest play, La Distance, is a beautiful and emotional two-hander. A father and daughter are sending voice messages to each other; the father is on Earth; the daughter is on Mars as part of a team of scientists tasked with setting up a colony for the future of the human race. We discover that the daughter is not coming back, and that to do her work successfully on Mars, she has agreed to a procedure that will cause her to forget her life on Earth. Tragically, this includes forgetting her father.

There is a simple theatrical premise. On a revolving stage the two actors can only speak when they are facing the audience, so as the stage turns faster and faster, they have less and less time to communicate with each other. Through this dystopian yet not-improbable scenario, Rodrigues explores the consequences of our choices and the complexities of intergenerational communication, as the daughter’s memory of her father starts to fade and she commences her work to save humanity.

READ MORE

- - -

1024: 3D Bridge

While exploring the fascinating world of outdoor installation artists we came across this work by the company 1024 for Nuit Blanche on the Pont Saint Louis, Paris. It’s such a simple yet stunning use of structure, material, and light mapping to transform an urban space, with a great soundtrack to match. We love the way 1024 merge architecture and spatial disruption with artistic vision and we see they currently have work at the Into the Light L’Expo in Paris, drop through if you happen to be enjoying a European summer!

READ MORE

- - -

Dimitri Papaioannou

An extraordinary theatre and dance maker. Dimitri is one of the master Greek image makers; you can see in all his work the influence of Greek tragedy, bodies and architecture, sensuality and eroticism. He is undertaking a project at the moment to create film productions of many of his seminal works. If you don’t know his work, enjoy discovering the incredible imagery and range via his website archive.

READ MORE

- - -

Robert Wilson

We want to take a moment to acknowledge an extraordinary artist, Robert Wilson, who passed away recently on 31 July. He remains one of the most influential opera and theatre directors and designers of the last 60 years.

Robert was driven by the idea that aiming to mimic real life on stage usually reads as false and that presenting life through abstraction is more truthful. His work is instantly recognisable through his design: a gradient cyclorama, performers that are sculptural, often with a single follow spot of light on their hand or face, and time-stretching, slow-motion tableaus that create startlingly poetic, visual theatre.

Our artistic director Matthew Lutton met Robert once and recalls him telling of how, when he was a young man, he would spend hours trying to create the exact colour of light he was imagining. Light for him was primary, never an afterthought.

Adelaide audiences may remember seeing some of Wilson’s work at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2022 for Robert Wilson: Moving Portraits, a series of video portraits of famous performers including the likes of Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, Winona Ryder, Renée Fleming and Alan Cumming. Wilson is survived by his sister Suzanne and his niece Lori.

- - -

Contemporary Music: e fishpool and JWPaton

Here are two wonderful First Nations ambient artists we’ve discovered that you might like to explore. JWPaton, a Yuin musician based in Western Sydney, Darug Country, creates processed manipulations of field recordings, coloured by modular synthesis that traverse multilayered and textural sonic terrain.

JWPaton || BANDCAMP

E fishpool, another Yuin artist based across Budawang, Ngunawal/Ngunnawal and Ngambri Countries, guides us through rich ambient landscapes with a curious and exploratory demeanour. We’ve found ourselves captivated by their kaleidoscopic and intimate auditory worlds. Headphones on!

e fishpool || BANDCAMP

- - -

Art Radar is a short periodical selection of anything and everything that has been moving us, inspiring us and piquing our curiosity from right across the creative world. Adelaide Festival celebrates bold new performances, radical creativity and boundary-pushing talent. Every day we get to engage with a wonderful range of incredible works and creatives that are shaping the cultural conversation so here’s a peek behind the curtain at some of the happenings that have caught our attention this week! Hopefully a few may even be appearing on a stage or street near you before long.