OmniPresence by Denmark's Kassandra Production May 2017
OMNIPRESENCE: A Privacy Performance Piece
![OmniPresence © Mukul Ranjan OmniPresence © Mukul Ranjan](/resources/files/jpg601/omnipresence-bred_cmyk_511x222-formatkey-jpg-w320m.jpg)
OmniPresence, created by Danish performer and director Annika B. Lewis and her company Kassandra Production, helps to expand the artistic scope of P3M5 beyond dialogue-centric plays and films into the realm of performance and installation art.
The project takes place inside and around an obscure surveillance van in a public space. Once you take a seat in the mobile “Omnibus,” you discover a couple of bizarre, self-promoting double agents who go undercover to try to make sense of our all-encompassing surveillance society. The piece explores the balance of freedom, control, and self-promotion. As Annika describes it, “In a jumble of PGP keys and privacy policies, Clouds and DarkNets, leaks and likes, censorship and selfie-sticks, OmniPresence zooms in on the fly on the wall. Who’s watching who?”
The OmniPresence website, formatted as a security consulting firm to continue the play’s narrative, includes a mysterious promotional film, a “Free Webinar” (livestream of performances, available once they begin) and information about “Boot Camps” (performances in Aarhus and Copenhagen).
Kassandra Production in co-production with Bora Bora, Aarhus
Idea, direction and mis-en-scène: Annika B. Lewis
Dramaturge: Anne Hübertz Brekne
Play title: OmniPresence: If you see something, say something!
Supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, Bikubenfonden, the City of Aarhus, Oda and Hans Svenningsens Foundation, and the City of Copenhagen
Kassandra Production, founded in 1998 by its artistic director Annika B. Lewis, is an artist-driven platform for innovative contemporary performing arts, working at the intersection of dance, theatre, media, and performance art. Its work challenges theatrical concepts and creates work characterized by a strong conceptual formulation and visuals which mix the trivial with the philosophical. Kassandra Production pieces use different perspectives, multiple fictional layers, and multimedia elements to explore new performative spaces, places, and concepts. Performances have been set up in private apartments, caravans, old factories, at fairs, in the media, and on the internet as well as in traditional theatre spaces.
![Annika B. Lewis Annika B. Lewis (c) Mukul Ranjan](/resources/files/jpg601/annikablewis_photomukulranjan_245-formatkey-jpg-default-m.jpg)