Fluchtpunkt [2022]
Open duration performance-installation

Fluchtpunkt* is a sound, light and smoke installation which was originally commissioned by the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate for Salamagundy, a variety show event curated by artist Mark Leckey. In this initial context, it was installed on a theatrical stage in front of a seated audience at Dreamland’s historic Roller Rink.

In lieu of a human performer, the work presents a suspenseful choreography of animated stagecraft, including a ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ style smoking doorway, theatrical curtains, roving spotlights and an audio landscape of submerged beats, sampled voices and extreme weather sounds; a recurring metaphor for conflict and resolution in 1990s dance music. Through this array of theatrical effects, Fluchtpunkt invites its audience to reencounter the fantasy world of 1990s Eurodance and its disquieting, portentous rhetoric of utopia and disaster.

The work has since been staged as an immersive experience with dense fog and lighting cues designed for club settings, including SOUP (Manchester) for Basket 3 in February 2023 -- see documentation below.

* German: vanishing point; place of refuge

Above: Fluchtpunkt at Dreamland, Margate, 2022. Image credit: Devan Clarke-Sheward


Above: Fluchtpunkt at Dreamland, Margate, 2022. Image Credit: Tim Topple. Event compere: David Hoyle


Above: Fluchtpunkt at SOUP, Manchester, 2023. Image credit: Will Gillibrand



 

2 min digest of phone footage taken by audience members at SOUP, March 2023.


2 min documentation of 15 min performance incorporating DMX controlled lighting, dense smoke, theatrical curtains and amplified sound, December 2022.