© Giannina Urmeneta Ottiker

A performance comes about by way of a specific combination of all manner of elements, including the performers, movements, the hall, the sound, the text, the audience, objects and so on. Thanks to the countless combinations of all these parameters, the possibilities of a theatre – the space – are equally unlimited. Some have already been worked though in the past. Others still have to be put to the test, and many possibilities are never realized. How do we make an archive for these potential situations and narratives?

Inspired by this question, two years ago, deepblue created a performance centred on a comparison between a theatre space and an archive. For On Gaps and Silent Documents, they have now translated this performance into a three-dimensional installation. Viewers or members of the audience determine their own trajectory through a series of miniature scenes. Messages in computer language and the evolution in sound suggest that what we perceive as dead objects can assume a certain autonomy and authority.