SATURDAY 12 MAY – THE IDEAL SPECTATOR: OPEN AUDITIONS
Are we being auditioned when we look at a work of art? The Ideal Spectator, Open Auditions offered a theatrical staging of spectatorship, devised and directed by Zuleikha Chaudhari, with the participation of Sudarshan Shetty. Volunteers were prompted to think and talk about who they are when entering a museum or visiting an art biennale.
Working with director Zuleikha Chaudhari, participants chose from a set of prepared scripts and were guided through an audition, enabling them to offer their own thoughts and views on what it means to witness art. Broadcasting within Tate and across social media, the open auditions reminded us that the conditions of viewing art – whether inside the walls of a museum or across the more open context of a biennale – always starts with ourselves. As you walk around art exhibits at a biennale or a museum, do you imagine yourself to be the curator? Or perhaps the artist (or maybe their impostor) making claims for the works on show? Do you believe that you are in fact a critic, declaring what it all means? Or is your role that of citizen in a public space? Are you the ideal spectator?
This is one of the interviews that took place as part of a theatrical staging of spectatorship, devised and directed by Zuleika Chaudhari.
The open auditions were followed by an artists’ talk at 4.15pm with Zuleikha Chaudhari, Sudarshan Shetty and Robert E. D’Souza.
