Vincent Roumagnac: Data Ocean Theatre Tragedy & the Goddexxes II. PARODOS (After Joseph Furttenbach)

Parodos (in Ancient Greek, πάροδος) is both the first entrance of the chorus in a tragedy prologue, and a passage in an ancient Greek theatre between auditorium and skene by which spectators had access to the theatre and actors might come and go during a play. _ In 1626, Joseph Furttenbach publishes Architectura Navalis, a treatise in which he provides a detailed technical account of the construction of sailing boats, according to the Italian way of shipbuilding. In 1640, he publishes Architectura Recreationis, in which he documents stage and light design, and the theatre machines and technologies developed in Italy.

Tragedy & the Goddexxes is the first part of Roumagnac's hybrid project Data Ocean Theatre (D.O.T.), which tangles myths, western theatre memory, new media, digital animism, climate emergency, seas and oceans transformations, and technological mutations in relation to diverse aspects of « submersion » as a contemporary living condition. D.O.T. appears, disappears, reappears through a series of polymorphic works based on the dramaturgical consideration of the simultaneous phenomenon of 1. the rising sea and ocean levels and 2. the exponential growth of big data in our informational age.

As the first part of the three-year-long D.O.T. artistic research, Tragedy & the Goddexxes aims at generating an alternative pantheon for a queered and techno-animist reset of the “tragic”, at the intersection of a syncretic (Greek/Scandinavian/Basque) marine mythology and the ambiguities of “technology-as-monster” narratives.

PARODOS is the second scene of the prologue of Tragedy & the Goddexxes; a series of XL fake-ceramic masks, inspired by ancient Greek tragedy headpieces and made from altered prints of contemporary scientific data from marine research, are dormant in the basements of a theatre stage, or a ship deck. The latter, as a hanging fragment, both evokes the western history of perspectivist and anthropocentric architecture, and, by its unconventional setting in the exhibition space, invites the visitors to an experience of perceptual repositioning.

The first scene of the prologue was presented in Pengerkatu 7 Työhuone in Helsinki last August, and the full opus Tragedy and the Goddexxes will be displayed as a solo show in Titanik Galleria (Turku) in November 2022. Data Ocean Theatre is supported by Kone Foundation, Taike-Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Pengerkatu 7 Työhuone, Tutke/Performing Arts Research Centre (Uniarts Helsinki)

Data Ocean Theatre is carried out in dialogue with the Finnish Meteorological Institute Marine Research Unit.

About the artist

Vincent Roumagnac is a Helsinki-based Basque-French artist and researcher. In 2020, he completed a Doctorate in Arts in the Performing Arts Research Centre (Tutke) of the University of the Arts of Helsinki based on the artistic research project Reacclimating the Stage (Skenomorphoses). In 2021, he initiated a three-year post-doctoral artistic research project entitled DATA OCEAN THEATRE (D.O.T.). He is currently a visiting researcher at Tutke/Uniarts Helsinki.

Trained as an actor and a director, Roumagnac has drifted away from “straight theatre”'s infrastructures and regimes of production to look at how the notion/settings/practice/imaginary of the “stage” transform through contemporary climate-morphing and techno-ecological conditioning. His solo and collaborative projects have been featured in different European and international venues. Since 2020, he has co-directed, in Helsinki, with Finnish choreographer and researcher Simo Kellokumpu, Pengerkatu 7 Työhuone (Massage & Beauty), a new kind of hybrid space dedicated to contemporary art, artistic research, body conditioning, and flowers. Roumagnac's art and research has been generously supported in Finland by Kone Foundation and the Arts Promotion Center Finland (Taike).

More information

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www.vincentroumagnac.com