“Living Sculptures” Squeeze Human Performers into Unexpected Spaces

Willi Dorner formed Vienna-based Compagnie Willie Dorner back in 1999 in an effort to produce unique, live performances that encourage the audience to look at the everyday world from a slightly different perspective. To that end, Dorner has created a spontaneous series of happenings that take place in cities around the world where his troupe interacts with their environments in curious and unexpected ways.

Utilizing local performers (handpicked for their flexibility and relative lightness), Dorner builds what can best be described as temporary, “living sculptures,” as human bodies are bended and blended into their surroundings. The “exhibition” travels throughout the urban setting, making use of public spaces that range from doorways and overhangs to columns and stairways. The result is an often colorful assault on the senses that asks us to reconsider the design and layout of our cities using a distinctive human scale. A relationship to our environments that is easy to ignore as we push through crowds on sidewalks and drive down streets in our individual bubbles, heads bent down, eyes pointed straight ahead.

[via WebUrbanist]