BOOK 01

Robert Wilson. Planetary Performing Arts

PEDRO VALIENTE

Recommended Book by Casa del Libro Madrid I Top 10 Performing Arts Books by Librería Alibri I Barcelona Published by Ñaque Ed.

Robert Wilson. Planetary Performing Arts (2005) is the first part of a book series on Robert Wilson’s work followed by the upcoming Suspended Time Space. Robert Wilson’s Creative Process. Both are based on the PhD dissertation Study of Robert Wilson’s Creative Process.

Robert Wilson. Planetary Performing Arts with focus on interdiscilinary work and comparative study.

“I arrived to Robert Wilson’s planet by chance. Perhaps as men and women meet great findings in life. I arrived in a state of transparent innocence that only untiring travelers know. Someone who is willing to discover fabulous territories of the mind and the spirit. […] I ended up living in New York and approaching through an academic research one of the genius of contemporary performing and visual arts. I do admire Robert Wilson’s work. And I feel fortunate for being part --even minuscule-- of his creative process. But this book is neither condescending nor laudatory. I’ve tried to avoid the excessive personalization of judgements as blind adulation. […] I made use of Robert Wilson’s work as a bridge to study contemporary arts. Only a few artists as this director from Texas have explored so many ways of expression. Generous and honest way: avant-garde theater, modern opera, contemporary dance, new visual art, audiovisual technology… Always from a multicultural perspective, an experimental drive, and a blend of languages that are inherent to the 20th century art: uncertain, hybrid, global. I hope that the reader who wants to learn about more than one artist can enjoy the journey through the avant-garde around Wilson’s work. […] I still don’t know why there are only a few books in the world about Robert Wilson. (Apart from huge and wonderful titles that look great on fancy coffee tables). Since it’s all about theater of images, what do we need printed words for? At least Picasso had more luck.” —Pedro Valiente [Translated from book’s prologue]

A Journey Through the Avant-Garde

ABSTRACT Robert Wilson. Arte escémico planetario (2005) I Avant-garde: Symbolism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Theater of the Absurd. I Visionaries: Alfred Jarry, Adolph Appia, Edward Gordon Craig, Oscar Schlemmer, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Erwin Piscator. Authors: Samuel Beckett, Tadeusz Kantor. Masters: Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham. I Aesthetic: Experimentation, postmodernity, multimedia, interdisciplinary, multicultural, ecological, oriental. I Artistic disciplines: performing arts, visual arts, film/media. I Creative process: scenic techniques, voice/sound, text/composition, performance/movement, light/costume, space/time, mise-en-escene, total theater. I Photo: Einstein on the Beach: Lucie Jansch I © RW Work Ltd.

“Over six hundred pages essay took the form of a PhD dissertation as a way to dive into contemporary art in the frame of the avant-garde. For the last decades, Robert Wilson is well known as a maverick of opera staging with successful productions commissioned mostly by opera houses in Paris and Berlin. Although Wilson is essentially a theater author/director who works with movement.

Robert Wilson has created an extensive body of visual work including drawings and paintings as well as furniture design, video art, and site installations. He’s the master of light in the performing arts of the 20th century and beyond. Wilson admires dancer Martha Graham, and follows the experimental tradition of The Black Mountain College with figures such as painter Robert Rauschenberg and musician John Cage. Wilson appears in the iconic book Theater of Images along with Richard Foreman and Mabou Mines.

Robert Wilson belongs to the unique generation that took New York by storm in the second half of the 60s to set ground-breaking languages for contemporary arts until today. Writers Heiner Müller and William S. Burroughs; musicians Philip Glass, Lou Reed, and Tom Waits are among his numerous extraordinary collaborators. I could not lock myself in for years into any other world. And besides of my dream to live in the city and study filmmaking, this is why I moved to New York.” —Pedro Valiente

PRAISE Recommended Book by Casa del Libro, Madrid I Top 10 Performing Arts Books by Librería Alibri, Barcelona 

DRAMA SERIES Book in Drama Technique series with authors Ian Watson and José Sanchis Sinisterra. Ñaque Ed. Fernando Bercebal director, Cristina M. Ruiz Pérez designer.

PUBLISHER Ñaque Ed. I Book BOOK STORES Madrid: Casa del Libro I Barcelona: Alibri I Bukz I FNAC I El Corte Inglés I Loring Art I Yorick I Artez I Artezblai I Librería Proteo I Amazon

INSTITUTIONS Biblioteca Nacional de España I INAEM Ministerio de Cultura de España I La Central Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía I BARCELONA LAIE Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (CCCB) I Institut del Teatre INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK The Watermill Center I Lectorum I Macondo UK I FRANCE I GERMANY Agapea MEXICO Conaculta I Ghandi

UNIVERSITY Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona I Universidad Politécnica de Madrid I Universidad Miguel Hernández I Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes I Book mentioned internationally including books, PhD dissertations, MA thesis, and university programs UCM Universidad Complutense de Madrid I PhD dissertation: CD I (2024) Eprint 2000+ downloads from 50+ countries.

BOOK REVIEW by writer Irma Correa for Acotaciones Magazine, Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático (RESAD) BOOK MENTIONS Academia de las Artes Escénicas de España Magazine I Teatro Español Theater Pogram I Fundación SGAE Writers Lab I LinkedIn ACADEMIC MENTIONS (2024) Academia registers 900+ book mentions

BOOK MENTIONS: ARTICLE: Robert Wilson’s Vision by Johannes Birringer, Performing Arts Journal, The MIT Press Link I PhD: Chaos Theory and Robert Wilson: A Critical Analysis of Wilson’s Visual Arts and Theatrical Performances by Shahida Manzoor, Ohio University Link I BOOKS Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond by Vassiliki Rapti, Routledge Link I Robert Wilson by Maria Shevtsova Link EXTERNAL LINKS

ABSTRACT Avant-garde: Symbolism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Theater of the Absurd. I Visionaries: Alfred Jarry, Adolph Appia, Edward Gordon Craig, Oscar Schlemmer, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Erwin Piscator. Authors: Samuel Beckett, Tadeusz Kantor. Masters: Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham. I Aesthetic: Experimentation, postmodernity, multimedia, interdisciplinary, multicultural, ecological, oriental. I Artistic disciplines: performing arts, visual arts, film/media. I Creative process: scenic techniques, voice/sound, text/composition, performance/movement, light/costume, space/time, mise-en-escene, total theater. I Book 01 Robert Wilson. Arte escénico planetario 

ABSTRACT Creative process by Robert Wilson through three versions of Death Destruction and Detroit through three decades: DDDI (1979) with technical study, DDDII (1987) with comments by collaborators, and THE DAYS BEFORE: death destruction and detroit III (1999) with journals of workshops at The Watermill Center in New York I Style and essentials: from Wagner's total theater to space in non-conventional performing arts I Commented chronology, documentation I Articles on artists Heiner Müller, Laurie Anderson, et al. I Book 02 Tiempo espacio suspendido. Proceso de creación de Robert Wilson

SUBJECT: Robert Wilson’s work (Part 1), creative process (Part 2). TITLE: Study of Robert Wilson’s Creative Process. LANGUAGE: Spanish. AUTHOR: Pedro Valiente. DIRECTOR: José Ramón Pérez Ornia. PROGRAM: Audiovisual Creativity and Production. UNIVERSITY: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). READING: PhD professors Jury from four universities in Spain. Mark: unanimous cum laude [sobresaliente cum laude por unanimidad]. (2024) E-PRINT UCM: 2000+ downloads from 50+ countries. PhD dissertation Estudio del proceso de creación en la obra de Robert Wilson

The Days Before DDDIII by Robert Wilson uses fragments from The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, Tone Poems by Christopher Knowles as well as biblical and found texts. Recited by readers including Fiona Shaw and Isabella Rossellini as a series of visual landscapes, it’s inspired by Kabuki theater and contemporary dance. Light supervised by A.J. Weissbard and visuals by video designer Christopher Kondek and video design collaborator Pedro Valiente. Developed over three years at The Watermill Center, and also at Piccolo Teatro di Milano and Teatro Comunale di Modena, Italy. Theater Original title: THE DAYS BEFORE: death destrucion and detroit III

RW Intro I Theater I Books I PhD