Juddset
performance, group ephemer
'CIRCLES', performance festival, Münster 2001
The concrete circles by Donald Judd at the Aasee, created on the occasion of the first sculpture exhibition in Münster in 1977, are now over 40 years old. Unimpressed by the graffiti that covers the concrete and the ivy that increasingly overgrows them, the two circles refer to two constants of the surrounding landscape, the slope of the hill and the horizontal of the water level.
The performance group ephemer revived this almost forgotten sculpture for the duration of the action. Seven actors enter the circles, walk on the concrete. In this way they, too, take up the lines of the surroundings, intensify their visibility. However, they alienate the sculpture in the same way, it becomes a stage that provokes a certain 'handling' because of its unique structure.
"The process is the beginning, but the beginning takes a step back each time, so that the beginning does not simply begin, but is a search for the beginning."
This quote by Judd could be a subtitle of the performance. The circle as a form without beginning and end, as a stage without entrance and exit. The first step and the question about what is the first step. Walking and the search for the beginning are the theme, walking in a circle, walking in different tempos and rhythms, walking against and with each other. The audience is located within the circles, so that the spectators - assuming they want to see as much as possible - are also constantly rotating and experience the 'cycle' in their own bodies.
