ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING (a septet for the apocalypse)

ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING
(a septet for the apocalypse)

There is an unshakeable feeling in the air that the end is nigh, yet somehow you find yourself quietly rooting for the storm, as if a part of you is tired of waiting, wondering when the world will finally fall apart – by lot, by fate, by our own hands, or by the will of the gods – almost daring them to grant your wish. Your gut us hungry for chaos, itching to chase after storms and run headlong into the fire; to watch society break down, and find out what’s truly important.

The apocalypse is one of the oldest fantasies we have, but it’s not about skipping to the end of the story. It’s a longing for revelation, a revealing of what we already know but cannot see: that none of this is guaranteed, and there’s no such thing as ‘ordinary life’; that even just getting through the day should feel like the miracle it is; that our civilisation is just an agreement that could be revoked at any time; that we have no other choice but to survive, to build a shelter, and find each other in the storm.

[[This piece is a companion piece to ALL TOMORROW'S TOMORROWS. Both works are in deliberate conversation with one another, forming a kind of diptych for the end of times.]]

At its core, ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING (a septet for the apocalypse) consists of seven videos. Each one cannibalises a variety of versions of different pop song and juxtaposes the resulting cacophony with edited and repeating video footage: collapsing buildings, blooming flowers, distribution centres, melting glaciers, conspicuous displays of wealth, abject poverty, raging wildfires, the opening of COP26, etc. These seven core videos, each one serving as a kind of 'revelation', are bookended by two audio tracks which establish the looped and obsessive qualities of the work, as well as its prophetic and oracular nature. There is also a final track that serves as exit music for the audience.

Formally, the piece uses loops, repetitions, recurrences, rotations and cycles as creative methodologies. Musically, it expands upon these structural ideas, relishing in repeating, obsessive motifs and variations. More broadly, by creating moments of acceleration, suspension, and deceleration, the work creates a tonal and emotional journey for the audience, a kind of arch which could in itself be looped.
From a visual point of view, the piece attempts to create 'mandalas' by using central and peripheral video images. These use different types of recurring footage, developing a friction between the images, and between the images and the music. In doing so, the piece hopes to open up a meditate space where to contemplate some of the most prescient challenges the world faces today.

Though these tracks/videos stand on their own terms, ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING (a septet for the apocalypse) will also feature a live performance component taking place in front of, alongside (and if technically possible) behind the projections. The performance will be made up by simple repeated choreographies of bold movements and gestures, as well as sculptural-pictorial actions with everyday objects and materials (i.e. plastic bags, playing cards, flour, meat). A series of collaged poetic texts (half-sung, half-spoken) will act as brief transitions between the projections; a kind of poetic-absurdist chant that brings the oracular spirit of the ancient world's sibyls to our own troubled-murky-muddled-turbulent-uncertain times.