or, The Whale
After the novel by Herman Melville
Presented by Moved by the Motion
Directed by Wu Tsang
Premiere: 12 March 2022, Pfauen
75 minutes, no interval
With this sujet the group Moved by the Motion takes on one of the "Great American Novels": Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Sophia al Maria and Wu Tsang's adaptation, interwoven with extracts by a sub-sub-librarian (Fred Moten), tackles the novel's subterranean currents, encountering a resistant hydrarchy and haptic collectivities of "mariners, renegades, and castaways" (CLR James). Directed by Wu Tsang and scored live by the ZKO to a composition by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, the silent film follows the white whale above and below the surface of the water, developing a visual cosmology that resists the exploration and exploitation of the earth under imperial colonialism. The staging of Moved by the Motion interweaves the story of the whaler's 'floating factory' with the early days of the film industry.
«Much like Tsang’s previous work, “Moby Dick” has drawn praise for its ability to combine disparate genres and forms, including dance and poetry, into an aesthetically striking artwork that explores lofty ideas about connection and identity.» The New York Times, 20.02.2023
