SOAP BOX OPERA WORKSHOP is a project developed by the collective Artists Meeting. Honing in on the dramaturgy of theory, the group has adapted excerpts from a variety of scholarly and art-theory-based texts from different eras and genres to a "Soap Opera" filmic format whereby plots are reduced to one liners, drama is played out in an exaggerated manner and scenes rely on emotional turmoil and ambiguity to capture the distracted viewer.

In the SOAP BOX OPERA WORKSHOP, professional actors and Artists Meeting members have thus adapted the texts as scripts for scenes of domestic and personal conflict and intrigue. The filming of these performances follows the parameters of the "affect image," as described in Gilles Deleuze's Cinema 1 and 2: Hence, the capture is restricted to only close-up shots of the performers, with no staging or sets, letting the detailed micro movements of the face, reflecting both external circumstances as well as inner reactions, carry the meaning of the episodes and scenes.

The project draws from the decadence of Rimbaud, the deconstruction and criticism of Derrida and Foucault, and the controversy of Ted Kaczynski and Andy Warhol in order to combine the intellectual tract writing with soap opera-style acting. Taking inspiration from "All My Children" to "General Hospital", "Dark Shadows" and an array of South American soap opera acting styles, combined with the presence of literary criticism and theoretical text, Artists' Meeting creates a new genre: the Interpretive Soap Opera.

During the exhibition at OTO a surprise element will contribute to the distracting nature of the soap opera and will interfere with the audience's reception of these transformed but otherwise scholarly texts.

Project Curators: James Andrews, Raphaele Shirley, Olga Lysenko

Excerpts of Arthur Rimbaud, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Andy Warhol directed by Raphaele Shirley

Excerpts of Guy Debord and  Ted Kaczynski directed by Lee Wells

Featuring performances by Caraid O'Brien, Edita Zulic, Aaron Beall, Randolph Curtis Rand, George Spaeth, G.H. Hovagimyan, Lee Wells

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