Lulu

For Lulu I created a quadrophonic sound design using the voices of opera singers Mireille Capelle and Margareta Klobucar along with quotidian auditory artefacts captured in three days of our studio work in Berlin.

About Lulu

Lulu Obermayer’s artistic practice is the staging of encounters with female figures from the canon. Named after the heroine of the title, the artist now confronts her namesake in the solo performance Lulu and reflects herself in the dramatic figure. Lulu is seen as a projection screen for male fantasies, and there seems to be a consensus on who Lulu is: a femme fatale who brings ruin to herself and those around her. Lulu, they say, is a mirror. But which Lulu is looking back when Lulu looks in the mirror?

In order to create a more complex image of the character, the artist tracks down sources related to Lulu and conjures up a séance-like setting, referring to her predecessors and bringing them into dialogue. The monologue becomes a dialogue. She draws on Frank Wedekind’s plays Der Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora, Tilly Wedekind’s autobiography Lulu, Die Rolle meines Lebens, G.W. Pabst’s film Die Büchse der Pandora, Louise Brooks’ memoir Lulu in Hollywood and Alban Berg’s opera Lulu.

Credits

Artistic Direction, Concept, Performance: Lulu Obermayer
Sound design: Adrienne Teicher
Video: Nora Jacobs
Technical direction: Michele Piazzi
Production management: Dana Tucker
Make-up: Marlena Fink
Costume: Predrag Pele Petrovic
Holograms: Mireille Capelle, Margareta Klobucar