Chronicle by Carmen Tărniceru
The show The Mountain is a philosophical extension, if it had been necessary (and it was!), of the work “The Betrayal of Images” by René Magritte. The spectator is challenged (through a frenzy both technical and artistic) to question everything around him, habits, teachings, the entire education and, why not, reality: from the word, to propagated sound, moving images, actions, games. He must shake his certainties. The Mountain brings back the question of truth. What is the truth? Is it just the representation of what we see – at individual or group level – or is it a misunderstood, abstract concept? Is it the reason we rally in the communities, to confirm what we think we already know, is it a harsh reality that hits us in the face or excels through absence? We will not find out, because Vladimir Putin, one of the characters created through a faceswap application, is not going to tell us. He is probably there to throw another trace of merciless doubt on an already disturbed spectator.
The show consists of a series of historical episodes: the first expedition to Everest, in allegorical balance with Orson Welles' radio show announcing the arrival of aliens on earth. The images projected on huge screens are partly scams or artistic expressions filmed on stage, mockups of events whose veracity you no longer trust, neither as a spectator nor as a Google searcher. I was very impressed by this coherence between the message and the performance. I left wondering if I had really been to the theatre, if people had really reached the Moon and if the cigarette that I just put out could still be called a cigarette.
Carmen Tărniceru
