"Truth is truth" was projected on the back wall during Mark Carberry's performance of Knot. It seemed a through-thread in the evening's three works but was most tangled in Carberry's collaboration, which brought elements of improvisation as elliptical points spun out to create fractals on screen.
In contrast, the live improvisation was stilted and machine won out over man. A clearer truth was found in the Love Spotters' Plaudit. Devoid of self-consciousness, the three members of Limerick's Garvey Centre found a purity of intention and realisation, however limited the ambition.
Claire Cunningham's Evolution was a quietly expressive personal reflection on overcoming physical obstacles to find her own truthful expression. Crutches remained philosophically detached from her movement, which always sought to isolate her body's expressiveness. Although deferential to Bill "Crutchmaster" Shannon, she chose not to ape his spatially devouring style, instead restricting her moves to the tenor of her story. ... Michael Seaver
Block Party - Meeting House Square
There were lots of toys at the Block Party and unfortunately the invited guests weren't allowed to play. A shame, because the performers looked like they were having such fun. Robbie Harris directed fellow percussionists with wide eyes, grins and approving nods, while six dancers spilled in and out of structures they had created with giant spongy blocks.
The blocks were the real stars - bright rectangles, circles and triangles that transformed into couches, houses and anything else you chose to take from abstract piles. Choreographic material was suitably restrained to joyous leaps, sprints and occasional personal dance licks, as play took over. There was a certain lack of spontaneity, and although some amount of pre-planning was necessary, things seemed staged rather than improvised or even fake-improvised. A small quibble because, like the children's equivalent, these blocks have limitless possibilities. ... Michael Seaver
Cinema of Silence, 3epkano - Irish Film Institute
The genre of post-rock - instrumental rock, stretched and mesmeric, often layered with strings - has always had a touch of the cinematic about it. Mogwai used this most successfully when scoring the soccer-as-art-movie Zidane.
Taking this a step further, 3epkano's fine scores for early art movies are challenging projects - adding modern music to half-century-old films whose surrealism and lofty symbolism can be equally impressive and ridiculous to modern tastes. And yet, 3epkano's dark and sensitive compositions do what a good score should, which is to amplify the action without being intrusive.
On early Saturday afternoon, the music to three short, surrealist films by Maya Deren mixed necessary portent with occasional playfulness, with the pulsing bassline underlying the unsettling Ritual in Transfigured Time particularly excellent. The final film, Jean Genet's explicit tale of voyeurism and homosexuality in a prison, Un Chant d'Amour, was visually arresting - not least because the audience could have expected some strong warnings of what was about to pop up on screen. The live score, though, was admirably restrained. ... Shane Hegarty
