LONDON'S BURNING: The Showmanship of Catastrophe..Meeting Lars Jan
In the second part of After Nyne's London's Burning series, we meet Lars Jan, Artistic Director of Early Morning Opera, who are staging Holoscenes as part of this fascinating programme
Holoscenes is a compelling six-hour underwater performance installation inspired by the widely-shared concern that our troubled relationship with water is set to become the central issue of the 21st century.
In a giant aquarium, individual performers struggle to continue their daily routines as water levels rise around them. Dressing, cleaning, reading the paper or tuning a guitar, they strive to continue with these menial tasks as water ebbs and flows around them. They swim up for air, dive down, and are constantly adapting to their new environment.
Accompanied by an other-worldly soundscape broadcast from within the tank, the piece is a mesmerising display of human persistence in the face of unacknowledged challenges. It is an elemental portrait of at best our ability to adapt and, at worst, a powerful demonstration of our collective myopia.
Holoscenes uses water to represent the calamities facing our world – from rising seas, melting glaciers, intensifying floods and searing droughts. The piece embodies the trauma of flooding threatened by climate change. By weaving these occurrences into a portrait of everyday normality, Holoscenes reveals an apparently distant problem as a real and present danger.
Lars, what went through your mind when you first heard about the London’s Burning project?
Fire. Water.
What convinced you to get involved?
I’ve been following the visionary work of Artichoke, the London-based producers of the festival, for years. Helen Marriage at Artichoke has had exciting ideas about sitting the project in a bustling public space that accommodates viewers who’ve come to see the work, and also those just going about their day — on their way to work, shopping. I’m excited to see what responses it inspires.
How would you summarise Holoscenes?
Holoscenes is a multi-platform work with a massive public performance spectacle at its centre. The piece features a 13-foot aquarium-like sculpture that fills and drains with water at varying (and occasionally frightening) speeds. The aquarium is viewable by audiences from 360 degrees, and inhabited by a rotating cast of performers carrying out choreographies based on everyday behaviours we've gathered from people around the world. It's a durational work — lasting anywhere from five to twelve hours. In addition to the performance, there are multiple videos series, light boxes, and prints, which make up the full work.
One can only imagine the logistical feat involved in bringing Holoscenes to fruition.
Give us some insight.
Holoscenes is the most challenging thing I’ve ever attempted on a number of fronts.
Performers and designers do their work amidst 3500 gallons of moving water, 18 tons of weight, and a massive amount of electricity. Naturally, safety was a primary concern at the outset, and it still is. We have a series of robust safety systems involved, hand signals to communicate in the event of communications breakdown, hidden air tanks below the water, and so on.
Also, Holoscenes required a good deal of structural, hydraulic and electrical engineering in order to determine what the design could possibly be, prior to deciding what it should be. There was just a massive amount to learn. It took a while to even understand what types of expertise I needed to bring to the project. And then it was another matter altogether to convince collaborators and other supporters that any of this was a good idea.
There isn’t a clear analogue for Holoscenes, so prior to the piece existing, it was so challenging to convey to potential supporters how it would function, how it might feel, or how we might pull it off. The hardest part of the early phase of the project was getting some people to just imagine it.
How does Holoscenes tie into London’s Burning and why is the London’s Burning programme relevant to modern-day London?
Calamities that burn fast grasp our attention, can be more easily identified, and memorialized. Those that burn slow — such as climate change and the accompanying sea level rise — are more difficult to perceive, and thus to put out.
In the context of this program, and The Great Fire itself, Holoscenes raises questions about our collective ability to acknowledge the climate crisis and to adapt our ingrained behaviours accordingly.
Apart from your own project, what other events are you looking forward to seeing during London’s Burning?
It’s hard not to be excited about seeing David Best’s collaborative sculpture on the Thames being set ablaze. On any level, fire is a performance — it’s transformative, and always gripping to watch. I submit every campfire as evidence.
In your opinion, what role does London play on the world arts stage?
Mercutio.
Lars Jan is Artistic Director of Early Morning Opera and creator of Holoscenes. The public can watch Holoscenes at Exchange Square, Broadgate from Thursday 1st - Sunday 4th September between 5pm – 10pm.
