Performance Formel: Marionette – Leipzig by Suse Weber

The walk-in installation Formel: Marionette – Leipzig belongs to Suse Weber’s series of Emblematischen Skulpturen [emblematic sculptures]. The artist presents pictorial vocabulary on a supporting structure and continually reassembles it in performances, as though she were rearranging parts of a sentence. Weber incorporates cultural symbols and materials alluding, for instance, to her childhood in the GDR or the Saxon coat of arms. Archive images from the state dance ensemble of the GDR depict representations of professions and social stereotypes. During the exhibition, Weber will carry out three performances, which also involve the audience. During the performance, the pictorial vocabulary is rearranged according to a jointly developed narrative. The marionette that is part of the installation and functions both as a tool – carrying the pictorial vocabulary – and as a metaphor: Weber dissolves the strict division between work, artist and audience and asks “who is playing” and who is “being played”?