Silent Theatre

Kirstine Roepstorff combines the aesthetic techniques of the avant-garde, such as collage and montage, with the appropriation strategies of the 1980s. By fearlessly testing the limits of what her materials actually permit, she not only reinvigorates the genre of collage but also reveals new sides to familiar themes.

In her installation Silent Theatre, Roepstorff explores the intersection between collage, mobile sculpture, and the stage. At the heart of this large, kinetic theatre production is a magical glass sculpture that moves in rhythm with lights and sounds. The sculpture consists of a number of collages of coloured glass, mounted in steel frames along a rotating centre. There are no actors on the stage; rather, it is the rotating collages, staged with dramatic lighting and theatrical effects, that drive the narrative. The soundtrack consists of a dialogue between two voices representing Image and Space. One of the voices is down-to-earth, structured, and rational, while the other voice makes abstract statements and allows things to flow freely and organically. The two voices converse about themselves and their attributes, about form and formlessness, thereby underscoring their own existence as works of art.

Roepstorff translates traditional idioms by using her own collages to create a three-dimensional space. She then uses stagecraft and theatrical elements to broaden the scope, so that the entire creation manifests itself as a transcendent Gesamtkunstwerk. “There is no such thing as inside and outside,” Roepstorff explains. “Everything is the same. All is one, and all is perfect.”