The Perimeter is pleased to present Ensemble, a group exhibition that brings together 11 artists exploring staging as a methodology for examining history through its incompleteness. Throughout this exhibition each artist takes part in a process of archival excavation, reimagining
the ways in which we record and assign value to history - and in turn, determine what stories are told and remembered.
Ensemble unfolds in many acts. Borrowing its title from the etymological root insimul meaning “together, at the same time”, the term describes a group of performers who engage in the collective act of storytelling. By considering history as a composition, an image to be reconstructed and arranged, the theatre as metaphor opens up a speculative framework within the art historical canon. The stage becomes a site where both time and disbelief are momentarily suspended, a place to challenge dominant narrative structures and propose alternative futures.
Presenting newly commissioned and recent works, Ensemble draws on the motifs of drama to explore the study of historiography as a collective discipline. These motifs include staging as a device to construct narrative through choreography, oral history, performance, and collage.
