Norway’s Verdensteatret pulls into the BAM Fisher this week with the U.S. premiere of experimental, immersive multimedia production (photo courtesy of the artist)
BROEN OVER GJØRME
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
September 7-10, $25, 7:30 & 9:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
verdensteatret.com
BAM’s 2016 Next Wave Festival kicks off this week with the U.S. premiere of the immersive audiovisual theatrical presentation Bridge over Mud, a multimedia extravaganza by the Oslo-based arts collective Verdensteatret. “Bridge over Mud is in its very nature a fragmented and abstract work. Its main substance rests in a poetic space that stimulates your senses through a symphonic multimedia expression. The form profits both from visual art and video art, sound art and performance,” Elisabeth Leinslie writes in her September 2014 essay “You Walk as Far as the Shoes of Reason Will Take You – Then You Jump,” continuing, “This generates a challenging complexity where opposing forces collide in ‘impossible paradoxes’ on one hand and surprisingly harmonic cadences on the other. It’s a symphony of elements that entice your senses. Listening to this work may take you to places you’ve never been before.” The sixty-minute piece features abstract projections, kinetic sculpture, more than sixty speakers, a tuba player, two vocalists, and nearly two hundred feet of train tracks winding through the intimate Fishman Space at the BAM Fisher. Bridge over Mud was created by company members Asle Nilsen, Lisbeth J. Bodd, Piotr Pajchel, Eirik Blekesaune, Ali Djabbary, Martin Taxt, Espen Sommer Eide, Torgrim Torve, Elisabeth Gmeiner, Niklas Adam, Kristine Sandøy, Thorolf Thuestad, Janne Kruse, Laurent Ravot, and Benjamin Nelson, each of whom brings a unique aspect to the troupe, which “endeavors to use a collaborative process to deeply integrate different artistic disciplines into projects that bridge the gap between artistic borders.” Both exhibition and concert, Bridge over Mud is an attempt by Verdensteatreter (Louder, And All the Question Marks Started to Sing) “to play the whole room like one big instrument.” We can’t wait to check this wild one out.