Thursday-Sunday, April 24-27, 7:30 PM
Guthrie Lab, 700 North First St., Minneapolis $24 ($20 Walker members)
Alladeen, a collaboration between the New York-based ensemble The Builders Association and the London-based company moti roti, is inspired by the early central Asian legends of Alladeen, the later South Asian incarnations, and the more recent Anglo-American versions of Aladdin (on page, stage, and screen). Both companies approach this project with a desire to rethink conventional "multicultural" collaborations, and the basic terminology which has grown up around them. Rather than expressing India, Britain, and America as monocultures, they draw from their experiences as citizens of the hybridized, urban landscapes of New York, London, and Bangalore. The interaction of ethnicity and cultures within these sprawling metropolises blurs the line between identities, and reflects how cultures borrow, steal, and reinterpret each other's signs and stories. In Alladeen, the ongoing exchange between Hollywood and Bollywood, and the trade in technology between India and America, all contribute to make this legend a model for cultural interaction. Alladeen attempts to retrace the ancient Silk Route, using contemporary technologies to retell the archetypal "rags-to-riches" story.
Alladeen is a crossmedia performance, a Web project, and an MTV-Asia music video. The performance (between 90 and 110 minutes in length) combines electronic music, new video systems, an architectural set, and live performance. While touching on the fantastical moments in the story of Aladdin, Alladeen also looks at the contemporary phenomenon of international call centers where primarily Indian operators often "pass" as American. In a sense these operators act as cultural impersonators who make the "local" a nostalgic but effective marketing tool. Though phone lines are a very simple technology, they allow one continent to become the "back office" of another. Alladeen will look at this use of technology, as well as other manifestation, for instance, the diaspora of Indian computer engineers to the United States.
For the performance, The Builders Association and moti roti use a video system that increases the interaction between the video and the performers, a computer-controlled system of media technology in which various projections are, in a sense, molded to the bodies of the performers. This approach allows a few performers to play many roles and to enact the seemingly magical transformations of the Alladeen story. This innovative use of video is the logical next step in The Builders Association's aesthetic practices, in that the performers and the video occupy the same space onstage, accommodating a visual and metaphorical layering of live and mediated presence.
Alladeen is directed by Marianne Weems and designed by Keith Khan and Ali Zaidi, in collaboration with The Builders Association. It features a cast drawn from both companies. The American team also includes longtime collaborators of The Builders Association: Chris Kondek (video designer); Jennifer Tipton (lighting designer); Dan Dobson (sound designer); Jeff Webster (performer); Heaven Phillips (performer); and dramaturg Norman Frisch, who has collaborated with both companies in the past. The British team includes Keith Khan and Ali Zaidi along with associates drawn from the Indian film industry--both performers and other industry professionals. Nasreen Munni Kabir, (director of both Movie Mahal and the Ambient India series), and the celebrated composer Shrikanth Shriram (whose recordings are distributed internationally as Shri and Badmarsh).
Alladeen addresses people who feel themselves connected to an international youth culture, at the same time considering that culture in a critical light. Through the performance, but also the Web and music video projects, this piece is designed to reach young audiences "where they live"--in clubs, in public spaces, online, on television, and in heavily trafficked centers for new fashion, media, and art. These products function as effectively on MTV-Asia as they do in a museum of contemporary art, or a digital arts festival; and translate as well in Mumbai as they do in New York or London.
More on moti roti:
Set up in 1991 by Keith Khan and Ali Zaidi, moti roti is a London based, artist-led organization, celebrating diversity and pushing the boundaries of artistic and cultural discourse. The name moti roti, hindi/urdu words meaning "fat bread," is an ironic titling that has a resonance with those who recognize either the language or the food. Although the artists straddle three or more cultures (Trinidad, Pakistan, India), they are not interested in the polarized and mythical East/West divide, but more about making work which speaks to many different people about complexities and contradictions of the current times.
The company produces a range of innovative and inspiring yet accessible exhibitions, events, and experience-led installations, which is relevant both to specific communities and the wider public. moti roti combines visual seduction with a sensitivity to space and an eye for transformation. Its work has been seen in New and Old Walsall Museum and Art Gallery to the streets of Notting Hill, from the Dome to the Royal Albert Hall, from Brick Lane to Tate Modern in London.
More on The Builders Association:
The company's productions combine historic and new texts with performance, sound, video, and architectural sets to create a world onstage that reflects the contemporary culture surrounding us. Since 1994, with a growing circle of artists, The Builders Association has collaborated on seven large-scale theater projects, including Master Builder (1994), The White Album (1995), Imperial Motel (Faust) (1996), Jump Cut (Faust) (1997), Jet Lag (1998-1999), and Xtravaganza (2000.) The company has also created two installations. Most recently, it has toured to the Barbican Theater, London; Kaaitheater, Brussels; the Rotterdamse Schouwburg; Marstall Theater, Munich; Maison des Arts, Creteil/Paris; Sommerscene, Copenhagen; Trafo Theater, Budapest; The Kitchen, New York; The Guggenheim Museum, New York, and many other venues.
Alladeen was co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; and MIST Residency Program at The Kitchen, New York, New York. The Walker commissioned the work as a central component of its How Latitudes Become Forms performance activities.
Related links:
http://www.motiroti.com/
http://www.thebuildersassociation.org/
