Massimo Furlan / Numero23Prod.

Superman Cosmic Green

A project by Massimo Furlan in the framework of the Festival de la Villette «Champs/hors champs », 10th and 11th of September 2005

There is the parc. A defined space, its self constituted by indistinct spaces. People wander in the parc. They feel good. There are rules one should not transgress. Rules help people feel good. One should respect rules. The parc is a micro-society. A space of relaxation, where one observes others. Safly. Security guards are watching, on foot, in their cars.

Suddenly one sees Superman. In different places. There are several Supermen. They appear everywhere. They go around in circles. Embodiments of our dreams: as children, with our pyjamas on, a scarf around our necks, we were all Superman. Today the children have become adults, small, tall, thin, fat. They have become people.

A last attempt to embody the myth: collectively, as if the number and diversity would increase our chances of reaching the model. A vain attempt. The costume reveals an ordinary man. The five Supermen are here, in the parc. They watch out for any danger. Evil is among us. A man, fat, masqued, wearing a yellow outfit and a black cape, loiters around the parc. He isn’t doing any harm. But he is scarry, he is different. Who is chasing who? Is Superman chasing the man in yellow or is it the opposite? It makes no difference. There is no story, no narration, only that which the spectators project onto this fleeting image, this slow movment. A simple situation. One behind the other. One beside the other. Others alone.

And then comes the woman. Three women: the Incarnation of love and two cosmic queens, fairies. They are there, doing nothing. Gazing into emptiness. From time to time they grill sausages as if for a picnic. The Supermen arrive, poses, eat their sausages and are off again. The fairies have a magic wand. They take care of the Incarnation of love, a young women clad in white. They protect the world. They take her through the park. The Incarnation holds a map of the globe under her arm.

The Supermen sometimes circulate in a small electric vehicle, like those used by gardeners. They look pathetic, like retired acrobats, or rather policemen on their motorbikes during parades. On the other side of the park, the man in yellow passes by in the same wehicle. They chase each other. Maybe. A strange situation. Burlesque. Everywhere and nowhere. And on the canal, in a rowing boat. Slowly advancing. Huddled together. Afraid. Losers.

A work on strangeness, revelation, and the fall of the myth.
A work on the geography of a place, on the impossibility for the spectator to grasp the totality of the work, on the passing of time, on the beginning of narrations, on the mobility and fragmentation of action.