Im Rätsel der Zeichen
Für Robert Wilson
von Heiner Goebbels
Erschienen in: Recherchen 96: Ästhetik der Abwesenheit – Texte zum Theater (08/2012)
In the basement of a black building, behind a black curtain, in the black wall of a dark, large, black room, there is a white hole. And in this hole there is a small, white shoe – an old, white leather shoe, beautifully manufactured, probably a shoe of the 19th century, probably the shoe of a child. And next to this small white shoe, in the white hole of that black wall in the black room behind the black curtain in the basement of that black building called „black diamond“, next to the shoe is a headphone. And when you put on this headphone while you look into this opening in the black wall you hear a child’s voice saying:
Okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
okay
This is surely one of the smallest works of Robert Wilson I ever saw, but nevertheless there are a lot of things about it, which are very characteristic for his work: the reduction of signs, the use of texts, the role of the spectator, the separation of sound and image, of listening and seeing, and the incredible use we can make and pleasure we have out of that free...