JUST DO IT: "Plato's Porno Cave" @ Little Berlin, 1/21
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Next up at Little Berlin: "Plato’s Porno Cave: A Dream Exhibition," a showcase of surreal performance art that's inspired by the Greek comic-playwright Aristophanes’ famous speech from Plato’s Symposium.
Since 2007, artists inhabiting the industrial district of Kensington have been making art in the unofficial exhibition space Little Berlin (2430 Coral St.), where they have art and performances that are visceral and community-based. Next up, is "Plato’s Porno Cave: A Dream Exhibition," a showcase of surreal performance art that's inspired by the Greek comic-playwright Aristophanes’ famous speech from Plato’s Symposium.
Aristophanes’ speech tells a story of the original humans, who were made up of three sexes — man-man, woman-woman, and man-woman. They were round, strong and fast beings with eight limbs, two faces and two sets of genitals. One day, after challenging the gods, the humans were punished and each was split in half by the Zeus's lightning. The humans were then left searching for their other halves.
The curators, Augustus Depenbrock, Marshall James Kavanaugh and Jon Shapiro, intend to capture the essence of this myth of love through abstract performances. “The Keys of Lightning” features a piano being dismantled by power tools as it's beign played; “Heads of the Table” will feature two heads poking out of a table top that has objects placed upon it, and guests will have to choose which head/half to listen to as they plead for them to work objects around; and “Wandering Half Giants” includes performers posing Aristotelian questions to guests, while dressed in over-sized clothes and manning twelve-foot limbs.
Sat., Jan. 21, 8 p.m., Little Berlin, 2430 Coral St., littleberlin.org.
