Ivo Dimchev

'I-On' performance

Performative exploration of some of the adaptive sculptures by Mr. Franz West

Ivo Dimchev's 'I-On' performance was one of the best I have ever seen!

It incorporated dance, sculpture (by Franz West), experimental sound, dance music,
poetry (a Shakespeare sonnet of all things!), singing and weird oral sounds, a wig and simple costume. All this under a sort of abstract narrative about a gay sculpture artist.

What I found most interesting was that all these elements had equal weight in the overall performance. Perhaps sound and sculpture provided the backbone of the narrative but they both served it. Looking at his other videos he seems to have done extensive work with character development and the use of simple sampling techniques. The microphone was very sensitive so you could here him breathing at some points and all the oral sounds he was making.

The content was a raw look at the artist and the creative process, somewhat autobiographical (I assume) and seemed to be the result of an overall design coupled with a process. There seemed to be a consistency though all the parts/sculptures which gave the piece a sense of cohesion which in turn gave it purpose (unlike a lot) of experimental performance one sees today.

There was also a sense of absurdity, which the audience quite enjoyed, and this made it sustainable while not detracting from its depth or seriousness. Proving yet again: the serious artist makes boring work.

What made this project so brilliant was perhaps the merging of the emotional, human, narrative, supplied by Dimchev, with the cold abstraction of the West's sculptures. The two extremes of art colliding in one performance space.