Maria Noel Dourron
Argentina

 
MFA Painting

 
Artist

Maria Noel Dourron
1981, Argentina

Bachelor in Theatre Arts, Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires

mail luna71ca@yahoo.com
web marianoeldourron.wordpress.com

 
Statement

The true question (Peter Brook)
...reminds me to always return to the basics, to the core, to the true question and to allow the work to develop as a result of a game/dialogue between form and content, neither subordinated to the other.

'...the sense that watching is at the edge of something more.' (Tim Etchells, Certain Fragments)
..is what I would like to provoke in an audience. I am interested in a kind of theatre that puts into practice the experience of the collective HERE & NOW, not only of the spectators, but also of the makers; and I am also interested in making that experience palpable: not to tell about it, but to make IT happen (so that, as audience you may experience it and at the same time be conscious of the experience).

'In our relations to things, thought and feeling are inseparable.' (Sherry Turkle, Evocative objects)
...defines the role of objects in our everyday lives. I am interested in what happens with them on stage, where they are stripped off their functions in order to find out what they mean to us, how they have affected us. I'm exploring their power to renew what we see.

"Theatre is the collectively spent and used up lifetime in the collectively breathed air of that space in which the performing and the spectating take place."(H.T. Lehmann, Postdramatic theatre.)
...helps me keep on trying to create moments in which the barrier breaks temporarily and something incomprehensible is experienced; something that, even though we can't explain it, we know IT happened: a moment lived in an extra-ordinary place, outside everyday life, which transgressed representation.

 
Q&A

What is the very first thing you do when you walk into your studio each day?
A big part of the work in the theatre is done as a group; I really like to let my designs develop and grow within the performance. I don't spend a lot of time at the studio, probably because of these characteristics.

When a new project begins, after a few conversations with the director of the project, I take a few days to let it sink in. I usually do this by walking. While I'm walking I see the things around me: the park, the houses, the people, especially the little details. While I am walking and watching the world around me, I am free to wander away with the things I see. In those moments I get the best ideas, inspired by the city. Only then I go to the studio, and the first thing I do is probably making some tea.

What is your drive for making art? (Is it a need? Does it help you think? Is it for yourself? Are you trying to tell someone else something? To whom?)
There is a very instinctive element in 'make believe'. In a way, I've been making theatre my whole life, even as a child, inventing stories and preparing the settings to bring these stories to life. In this sense, my transition from playing to making theatre was really natural. But why did I choose the visual aspect of theatre? I'm still looking for the answer to that question.

I am fascinated by the relationships between content and image in the theatre. How do you evoke a sensation through the visual? How do you relate to the content of a play without being illustrative? How can image add without being redundant?

I especially like what happens with 'things' in the theatre: when I choose a particular object to be on stage, it becomes independent of its function in everyday life, it gains new meaning. The visuals in the theatre definitely try to say something, or rather to evoke. Through these objects I become a part of that game between players and audience; that 'here and now', that is theatre.

I had never really worked 'as an artist' until now. It's a difficult word in a place where the product is not the result of one person. But lately I discovered the importance of that very private and very personal moment when the 'making' is just between the painter and his paint; when the paint starts leading the way.

How to consume art?
I've been thinking about this question for a couple of days now, and I'm not quite sure how to approach it. It's quite tricky, what does it really mean 'to consume art'? Personally, I like it when art pops up in the most unexpected places. I like going to theatre plays I know nothing about, being as unbiased as possible about who the artist is or what kind of work he does. I try to view the work of celebrated artists in the same way, forgetting what I know about them, trying to see them for the first time again. Most of the time it's very difficult: every detail says something about an artist and his work -