Mere Phantoms’ touring is managed and run worldwide by Atta Festival!

Garden of Earthly Delights

Performance for 5 years and above

In a darkened room a light goes on the reveal a jungle in shadow. Using nothing but lights, two performers travel through a series of vignettes made entirely of moving shadows in the intimacy of a small space.

Borrowing its title from Hieronymus Bosch’s 16th century painting, Garden of Earthly Delights is an interactive shadow installation and performance. This work is an intimate experience designed to be experienced by a small number of viewers at a time.

Using innovative techniques for creating shadow, the performance looks at the 16th century idea of heaven and hell expressed in the famous painting by Bosch and the contemporary experience of living in urban centers. What are the delights and disasters we face daily? What are our collective desires, virtues and follies? What takes place as we collectively chase these dreams and run away from these nightmares? Is there a beginning or an end to this journey? Viewers are invited to find out for themselves as they are given lights to illuminate this unusual piece. Hidden in plain view, all the images that create this performance are made of intricately cut paper. They come alive with the simple movement of light.

“In this immersive journey, viewers are guided by shadow projections and sound cues to bring a procession of images to life. With specially designed light wands, spectators move from a lush tropical jungle to an urban maze of concrete, cables and characters. The cityscape appears as shadows on the wall, becoming an abstraction even as its physical essence is laid bare.

Mere Phantoms takes 16th century notions of heaven and hell and welds them to a modern inquiry. This jungle / urban maze: is it fantasy or nightmare? Decide for yourself as you experience the magic via light and paper. This is illusionism at its finest—refined down to a beautiful binary of black and white.” (PuSh international performing arts festival)

Mere Phantoms' credits

Garden of Earthly Delights - Sibiu Young Festival, Sibiu, Romania. 08/2018
Garden of Earthly Delights – PuSh Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver BC. 01/2017
Three Cities: Prayer/Protest – Grunt Gallery, Vancouver BC. 01/2017 -03/2017
Uncommon Shadows – One Architecture Week Festival, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. 09/2015
A scene from Three cities – Festival Phénomena, Montreal, Canada. 10/2015
One Hundred Miles Around Us – Forman Gallery, Sherbrooke, Quebec. 09/2015 – 12/2015
Three Cities: Prayer/Protest – Brandts Museum, Odense, Denmark. 08/2014 – 01/15
Oyuna Gelme // Come out and Play – Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Turkey. 09/2013
Suspended in Narrative – Nuit Blanche, Musée McCord, Montreal, Quebec. 02/2013
Suspended in Narrative – Victoria Art Gallery, Victoria, BC. 01/2013
Loop City – Fuse, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC. 06/2012

for more information and booking please contact:

hakan@attafestival.com