Rei Sato’s “Peter and the Wolf” stage installation at the Guggenheim Museum
Rei Sato travels several cities around the world to expose herself to particular local environments during her creative processes.
The latest project has been an artistic contribution to this year’s stage performance of “Peter and the Wolf” at the Guggenheim Museum in NY.
It is part of the institution’s ongoing “Works & Process” project and features each year a unique interpretation of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s famous musical symphony for children, which was originally intended as an introduction for young kids to music and musical instruments.
Rei Sato has been invited this year, as the contributor artist where she presents her unique aesthetic interpretation of the characters in the play to offer the audience first opportunity to meet the world of art as well as the world of music. The story is told through the narrative by the designer Isaac Mizrahi, along with the instrumental performance by Julliard Ensemble.
Here is the report on the opening week, which was a great success!
A snapshot with the conductor George Manahan taken before the show opening – Mr. Manahan usually performs for the prestigious New York City Opera!
“The audience seems to be in an excellent mood!” His comment encouraged us a lot.
It was 5 minutes before the opening, and the seats were full.
Since one of the objectives of the play is to introduce various musical instruments to the young audience, every one of the performers in the theater pit played an integral part of it.
After the show was over, the kids were invited onto the stage to look at Sato’s work up close.
There was a particularly long line of the children in front of the Wolf figure – they all wanted photos with it.
The little Harry Potter was closely examining the work trying to figure out how it had been made.
She shot every character with her dad’s iPhone.
Children were so free-spirited and playful. Some of them roared like a wolf while others mimicked a cat.
Little wolfy(or kitten?) walking by a bigger version.
Most of the boys would first look into the large mouth of the Wolf then stick their heads inside.
“I made the right choice stitching the tongue on.” The artist phewed.
The production was received with much excitement, with an endless applause and bravo.
Charles Fabius, the consulting producer of the show described Sato’s installation as “Magical, poetic, and beautiful.”
Mr. Fabius also recounted his story amid the huge applause, that when he had first suggested the idea of a still installation for the play, nobody – not even the museum – wanted to believe that it would work and they even refused to offer their support for the project.
This year’s program was successfully completed with the last stage on December 19, 2010.
Guggenheim NY website
Related articles:
The Wall Street Journal (December 13 issue）
A picturesque “Peter”
©2010 Rei Sato/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Rei Sato’s project is occurring at Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum.
