At the borders of scenography
Foreward for Scenography and Art History introducing how to approach scenography as a crafting of borders.
I always feel that scenography works best at a border. If you arrive to this book as an art historian, border thinking is one key for unlocking its potential for art history. Indeed, I encourage you to think of scenography as the crafting of borders. Whether in terms of disciplines or materialities, scenography weaves border feelings by highlighting the intersection of distinct stagecrafts, media, and ontological spillages between the politically contrived and ‘the real’. In doing so, it leans on a cross-disciplinary range of subjects, techniques and processes that exceed the institutional contexts of theatre. Historically, scenographic practice has been conceptualized as a lesser form of architecture, akin to a potemkin village or painted backdrop, that serves only to communicate a preexisting message. Contemporary approaches to scenography embrace a more holistic account of how the combination of materiality, light, scent, or even temperature evoke feelings of place. The interface of scenography and art history provides an apt context from which to re-map and re-think the underlying borders and anti-theatrical biases that frame scenographic cultures. Whether the critical possibilities of a stage set or the multi-sensory experiences of gardens, I encourage you to consider how scenographic techniques are present in a range of staged material cultures that intervene, irritate or complicated normative flows of space and place.
