Markus Öhrn / Institutet / Nya Rampen
Markus Öhrn does not come directly from the world of theatre but that of plastic arts. Elective affinities with members of the companies Institutet (Sweden) and Nya Rampen (Finland), today settled, like Markus Öhrn, in Berlin, led him to break into the stage. It was at their request that the Swedish plastic artist examined the orchestration of shows at the limits of dramatic art and performance. A video-maker by training, Markus Öhrn uses a singular language whose evocative power comes from words and reinvents the theatre space by multiplying viewpoints. Together, Markus Öhrn and the all-male actors of Institutet and Nya Rampen create disturbing and iconoclastic works that reveal the dark subconscious of our patriarchal societies and whose ambition is to make themselves “an incarnated critique”. Whether they invest the field of popular culture (TV series, pop songs) or that of news items, these plays turn the relationship between the public and the performers upside-down, as in Love Story, the third work of their collaboration, after Ladainha (2006) and Best of Dallas (2007). They are appearing for the first time at the Festival d'Avignon.
MS, April, 2012