Art Works Outpost Studio 2021 : Discursive Constructions/Speculative Practices of Knowing : Possible Worlds/Robert Lepage 2001

Art Works : Discursive Constructions/Speculative Practices of Knowing

Outpost Studio

020921

Photo 7980 : Possible Worlds, a photo by Russell Moreton on Flickr.

On the horizon, then, at the furthest edge of the possible, it is a matter of producing the space of the human species-the collective (generic) work of the species-on the model of what used to be called "art" indeed, it is still so called, but art no longer has any meaning at the level of an "object" isolated by and for the individual.

Henri Lefebvre, 

Openings and Conclusions. 

On Installation and Site Specificity (introduction) Erika Suderburg

The point is not simply to put the observer or knower back in the world (as if the world were a container and we needed merely to acknowledge our situatedness in it) but to understand and take account of the fact that we are part of the world’s differential becoming.  And  furthermore, the point is not merely  that knowledge practices have material consequences but that practices of knowing are specific material engagements that participate in (re)configuring the world

Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway

OUTPOST STUDIO 2021

The Potential of The Abstract Field

Robert Cooper

The Materials of Life

Tim Ingold

Possible Worlds (2001)
Reviewed by Jason Korsner
Updated 11 July 2001

The fourth film by the French Canadian theatre director Robert Lepage - his first in English - cements his reputation as a film maker with a unique vision.

"Possible Worlds" is a poetic study of the nature of human existence, wrapped up in a murder mystery.

George Barber (McCamus) is found dead with $1000 in his pocket but with his brain missing. Interspersed with the subsequent police investigation, we see moments of George's life as he struggles to make sense of the world - or worlds - he lived in. "Each one of us exists in an infinite number of possible worlds," he muses, as he keeps meeting the same woman, Joyce (Swinton), although each Joyce he meets has a different past, a different present, and a different personality.

Lepage employs exquisite visuals as he explores George's imagination and the role it played in his life, asking fundamental questions like do our thoughts exist before we think them? Or is there another me?

Tom McCamus displays just the right amount of vacant confusion, while Tilda Swinton gives a remarkable performance - or four performances - reprising the same character in different but simultaneous worlds.

The pace is slow and deliberate, but any faster and the audience would get lost. "Possible Worlds" is not easy to watch, and poses more questions than it could ever hope to answer, but this intelligent film will certainly achieve the director's goal of inspiring discussion.