Melanie Jame Wolf: TONIGHT – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Melanie Jame Wolf:
TONIGHT
This revival of TONIGHT takes place online. Because time has a very different quality on screen than on stage, and because the logic of video is different to the logic of theater, Melanie Jame Wolf has reimagined this version of TONIGHT as a film. In this sense, it is a second edition of the work. Offering a fresh take to both those who are familiar with TONIGHT, and those new to the work and the artist. As an interdisciplinary artist interested in choreography and the moving image, this new version of TONIGHT continues Wolf's project of experimenting with the relationship between dance and the screen beyond existing ideas of documentation and the conventions of the “dance film”.
From The Stooges to Rihanna, TONIGHT is one of the most frequently used words in pop music, and probably the most powerful: It opens up a sense that tonight, for real, something momentous might occur. Melanie Jame Wolf critically explores the potency of this popularly shared poetic and its commercial exploitation: Joined by Sheena McGrandles and Rodrigo Garcia Alves, she delivers , “a study of how the pop industry transforms people, their souls and bodies, into clones and serial products.” (nachtkritik.de) An aesthetically dense evening that explores the pleasures and perils of the erotics, the poetics, and the politics of a shared pop imaginary.
CONCEPT, TEXT, VIDEO, DIRECTION Melanie Jame Wolf PERFORMED BY Melanie Jame Wolf, Sheena McGrandles, Rodrigo Garcia Alves SOUND DESIGN Mieko Suzuki LIGHT DESIGN Ariel Efraim Ashbel COSTUME DESIGN Josa Marx STAGE DESIGN Jonas Maria Droste OUTSIDE EYE Sharon Smith ASSISTANT Evan Loxton
A production by Melanie Jame Wolf in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds. With support by the Australia Council for the Arts, Cité Internationales des Arts, The Substation - Melbourne, and MAKE artist development programme and residency - Theatre Forum Ireland. The revival is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Media partner: taz.die tageszeitung
Melanie Jame Wolf makes artworks, performances, and texts about power, persona and the phenomenon of “show business”: the liminal, the persuasive, the deceptive, the staged, and the performed in the political, theatrical and everyday. Her work explores the vulnerability of the live moment and the body as an unruly political riddle. These investigations are expressed through shape-shifting and play with language in surprising and humorous ways.
Spaces that have presented her work include Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kunstmuseum Basel – Gegenwart, KW – Institute of Contemporary Art, HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, nGbK, The National 2019: New Australian Art biennial, VAEFF – Film Festival NYC, Arts Santa Monica, Schwules Museum, Sophiensæle, Münchner Kammerspiele, Arts House Melbourne, Kasseler Dokfest, Bärenzwinger Berlin, SOPHIE TAPPEINER and Institute of Modern Art Brisbane. Wolf was one of 8 nominees for the 2022 Berlin Art Prize.