Nora Schultz
Tripods Escape 1 (detail) 2013
Courtesy the artist and Isabella Bortolozzi
Nora Schultz
Terminal +
BMW Tate Live Performance Room
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German artist Nora Schultz will present a new performance work for BMW Tate Live that explores the hyper real and detached nature of cyberspace. Her live performance will be broadcast on 11 December 20:00GMT via the Tate’s You Tube channel.
For this work Schultz references the Stephen Spielberg film, Terminal, that sees a man trapped in an American airport terminal when refused entry to the US and simultaneously not able to return to his own country after his nationality status is declared invalid. Schultz sees parallels in the exaggerated reality and isolated existence of the airport terminal, emphasised in the film, with the nature of performance and the position of a performer.
In this work the Performance Room space becomes a terminal to cyberspace. In Terminal +, Schultz plays the part of the protagonist stationed within the terminal. During the performance she deconstructs the foam-lined interior, using sections of the foam to print their folded shapes on the floor and walls of the room. As the performance progresses, there is a transformation from the physical to digital as the work is broadcast live via the Internet. A countdown, a recurring element in Schultz’s work, will be present through a looping voiceover in a soundtrack that accompanies her performance. The soundtrack also includes the voice of the protagonist in Terminal +, that Schultz acts out in her performance, giving voice to an inner monologue about their experience within Terminal + and their journey into cyberspace.
Schultz’s work spans sculpture, installation and photography. Often working with printing devices and rotary presses tomake monumental, sculptural arrangements and prints, Schultz regularly turns this process into live performances. Schultz also works with industrial materials, refuse and discarded objects, repurposing these found materials in a process committed to interrogating the mechanisms of artistic process.
A live Q&A with the artist will be broadcast from the Performance Room space immediately after the performance.
BMW Tate Live: The Future of Live is the final talk in the 2014 programme and will take place on Monday 1 December 2014, 18.30, Star Auditorium, Tate Modern. The panel includes Associate Curator at Performa, Charles Aubin, Director of Witte de With Center of Contemporary Art, Defne Ayas, Professor for performance theory and history at the University of Québec in Montréal, Canada, Barbara Clausen and chaired by Catherine Wood, Curator of Contemporary Art and Performance, Tate Modern.
BMW Tate Live is curated by Catherine Wood, Curator, Contemporary Art and Performance, Tate and Capucine Perrot, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern.