ARTIST STATEMENT

Artist statement - Anna Fabricius 

In the last decade my focus of my attention was shifted to the meaning of the work, the changing nature of the work and the lack of the labour in our society. In my working method on the one hand is the most important the reality – working with real blood-flesh group of people, workers – on the other hand is very important the fiction – how can I put them in an unusual situation with the help of the improvisations and children games.

 

To articulate my position and my working method, during the 3 years of my doctoral, I tried to find a metaphor for this position: on the one hand working with reality, but on the other hand making a staged situation as well. What I have found as a metaphor is: the anatomical theatre.

 

1. The anatomical theatre as a metaphor means having a focused, professional look, going "beneath the skin", involving roles and staging not dissimilar to the theatre in the classical sense of the word.

2. The dissector corresponds to the exploring artist. Getting beneath the skin like a person performing dissection is the same method an artist uses when he or she attempts to uncover invisible social issues through his or her work taking an unusual approach.

3. What I mean by unusual approach is when an artist through his or her work makes different situations clash. 

4. Making different, seemingly remote situations and places collide, contributes to the criticism, making it stronger.

5. What making unusual situations clash means to me is throwing the participants, and through them the audience off balance, making them leave their comfort zone of everyday thinking.

6. I can throw them off balance in the most authentic way if those who participate in the work of the artist are real, flesh-and-blood people.

7. In my anatomical theatre throwing I can succeed in throwing them off balance through improvisation and the game.

8. The rules of the game I use in my work make it staged on the one hand, while on the other hand the improvisation within the game make the work more random.

9. It is improvisation – as a method – in my work that can help interpret or reinterpret social issues from an angle as yet unseen.

10. The game and improvisation helps free participants of their inhibition of self-representation both physically and verbally. Being free of these inhibitions will help them be who they really are.