Endgame (The laboratory for the restoration and preservation of
the remnants of human language)
the remnants of human language)
Preserve these words for cold,
For troubled times!
A human survives like a fish on the sand:
It crawls to the bushes and, standing on crooked legs,
Moves away, like a line from a pen,
Into the heart of the land.
For troubled times!
A human survives like a fish on the sand:
It crawls to the bushes and, standing on crooked legs,
Moves away, like a line from a pen,
Into the heart of the land.
— from the poem «Cape Cod Lullaby» by Joseph Brodsky
Exhibition concept, model, and visualization for Erlangen Theater Foyer
I. The Exhibition Concept
You are in a theater foyer—a kind of waiting room.
The theme of waiting is one of the leitmotifs in Samuel Beckett's work—it is what fills the lives of his characters and gives them meaning: waiting for someone's arrival or departure, waiting for liberation, waiting for an end.
Samuel Beckett, who lived from 1906 to 1989, witnessed an era marked by upheaval and change: his life encompassed two world wars, enormous losses of life, revolutions, and mass migrations. Against this turbulent backdrop unfolds the personal fate of a writer—an artist who developed his unique and paradoxical language, using it to offer ambiguous yet profound reflections on the state of humanity.
Every artist's work is shaped by their personal biography, interwoven with the currents of world history. The aim of this exhibition is to examine Beckett's work through the prism of his life within its historical context.
You are in a theater foyer—a kind of waiting room.
The theme of waiting is one of the leitmotifs in Samuel Beckett's work—it is what fills the lives of his characters and gives them meaning: waiting for someone's arrival or departure, waiting for liberation, waiting for an end.
Samuel Beckett, who lived from 1906 to 1989, witnessed an era marked by upheaval and change: his life encompassed two world wars, enormous losses of life, revolutions, and mass migrations. Against this turbulent backdrop unfolds the personal fate of a writer—an artist who developed his unique and paradoxical language, using it to offer ambiguous yet profound reflections on the state of humanity.
Every artist's work is shaped by their personal biography, interwoven with the currents of world history. The aim of this exhibition is to examine Beckett's work through the prism of his life within its historical context.
Beckett’s biography
On one row of columns are written events from Beckett's life; on the parallel row—global changes that took place during the same period. Using headphones, one can "listen" to each column to learn more about the event. On both sides of the hall are seats bearing the marks of waiting: dents, holes, and worn fabric. Some of the seats are occupied by characters from Beckett's Endgame—they hold the waiting numbers in their hands, their clothes and faces covered with letters; they are "wounded" by the word fragments written on the hall's columns. At both entrances, on low pedestals, stand black boxes filled with clay tablets containing fragments from Beckett's play. Before a performance begins, the audience is invited to participate in a game to reconstruct human language: a spectator can take a number from the machine and take a seat; when the visitor's number lights up on the board, the visitor can take a clay tablet from the black box and place it (according to the number on the board) in its numbered place on one of the tables. In this way, the canvas of Beckett's language gradually assembles itself from these fragments.
III. Spatial visualizations and exhibition elements
IV. Technical drawings
Estimated material cost: 21,550 €
V. Model photos