Scenography stresses on being visual, after all. What if one decides to work in a theatrical expression that shifts emphasis from the eyes to the other senses?

‘Stuck and Desperate – V&A will help’
Drawing for V&A Commemorative book pp. 24-25
COURTESY OF Pamela Howard

I work a lot with music and performers, and especially the human voice. This is the dimension in the space, and I see scenography like creating sculptures in space with bodies. The visual is only the equivalent of choreographic notation, or a musical score, that will remain after the actual theatrical event, which is only ephemeral. After a production is over, it only exists in the memory. The visual notations are all that stay. (Look at the little sketch of Calisto and Melibea on the two ladders in my book, for example.) And don’t forget the importance of the text, scenario or score as the inspiration or starting point for any work.

Must scenography necessarily only be applicable in theatre?

Not at all. Note also that working in new spaces attracts new audiences. There is a real hunger for contemporary music and events out of theatres, not withstanding the practical fact that theatres are normally well equipped and work is “easier” there.

How about dramatising other public spaces or events such as museums, rituals…? Would that be pushing too far?

Nothing is too far, and I can and do make performances in all sorts of strange spaces, as you will see from the book. Museums which create “blockbuster exhibitions” have given birth to “museologists” who apply scenographic principles to exhibitions. In this case, it is the audience that moves. The performers who are the exhibits stay static.

At the stage where you are now, how are you going to further develop / enrich as far as your art and resources are concerned?

I have discovered that if your work is your ambassador and people fall in love with it… you can eventually find the right place for your project.

I hope to be taken seriously as a creative artist, and thus to be able to find financial support for my projects that always have a strong link to the community, social and political. If only I could find a patron… but every project is a repetition of the same process of applying for funding from people who can barely grasp your intention. That is why I try to create artwork that speaks for me, because I have discovered that if your work is your ambassador and people fall in love with it, you can eventually find the right place for your project. But it is very, very hard and one has to have a dogged determination. I have projects planned right now up to 2012. Of course I am over 70, so I have a limited time left now to be able to do this kind of work. I have to be realistic about it.