Over three consecutive evenings - 21st through 23rd September 2001 - Mike Brookes and Mike Pearson constructed polis within the city of Cardiff, Wales.
A large scale three hour performance event and installation, polis was built upon the structured encounter of twenty-five performance fragments, realised in five phases of five simultaneous acts, across the centre of the city.
The primary threads of material were provided by documentary traces of these acts, produced by small groups of spectators who were delivered to the encounter of each isolated fragment by guided taxi; along with documentation of personal material generated by these spectators; and additional material generated and sampled within the installation itself.
The event and 'forum' of polis was evoked through the structured juxtaposition, assemblage and immediate re-presentation of this material live within the room of the developing installation. An installation that combined multiple projection and video monitoring; with maps of routes and locations; texts; polaroid photographs; an evolving and complex sound ambient; and the accumulation of artifacts and traces resulting from the performers' processes and activities, and the spectators encounters with them.
polis was realised by a ensemble of twenty: five within the room of the installation [including Brookes and Pearson], five performers journeying within the city, five taxis, and five guides.
* for further related material please try the informal archive developing behind the chronologies of recent projects at .../shame
© Pearson/Brookes