During Conflux Festival Fronte Vacuo presents MμRMUR: The Deer which can be seen both within the exhibition, which opens on Friday the 20th of September, and in the performance programme on Saturday the 21st of September.
In MμRMUR: The Deer, the otherworldly characters from the Humane Methods saga hit the streets engaging the people around them to reflect on the morphing of local ecosystems. This 24 km long walking performance, is a quest for posthuman empathy, a rite to attune with kin species. The journey speaks to the world through silent rituals, operatic murmurs, and biophysical music. The performance begins at iii in The Hague and travels to Conflux Festival in Rotterdam, stretching and sieving across the territory in between. The piece combines street theatre, body art, interactive musical instruments and live video streaming. The travelling group includes three characters – each one with its own symbolism.
MμRMUR: The Deer is co-produced by Volkstheater Wien and commissioned by iii instrumentinventors.org The Hague. Funded by the Austrian Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and the City of The Hague.
The main character is the Deer, a female human figure with the behavioural and physical traits of a male deer. Throughout the long walk it holds a pair of antlers with only the strength of its neck and nothing else. It is a living statement of queerness: in nature, mostly male animals produce antlers. The second character is the Officiant, a master of ceremonies. A masked, thin body without a face or expressions, his tasks are to accompany the sacred Deer with a ritualistic choreographic prayer and attract followers from the surroundings. The third character is the Shadow. A black body with an operatic bass voice, it accompanies the group while singing and murmuring for hours and hours, marking the rhythm of each step and the passing of time. Its powerful voice is gently amplified through portable speakers and digitally manipulated in real-time by his own body, whose muscular effort is captured and analysed by a custom interactive music system.
The performance takes place in two parts across two consecutive days, each part lasting approximately 6 hours. Audiences are invited to witness the trio departure at iii and their arrival at Conflux Festival at dedicated locations, and more excitingly, to join them along the walk for whatever amount of time one may feel suitable. The trio will invite more people along the way and whoever can join the group and leave at any time. Yet the piece expands beyond the physical realm of the streets into the data world. The entire performance is continuously filmed live by a walking crew, transforming the performance into a cinematic, surrealist audiovisual experience that is streamed in real time online, as well as at dedicated venues in The Hague and Rotterdam, making it accessible worldwide, minute by minute, step by step.
