CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPES OF GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION: THE GRID IN THE STAGE SPACE

Abstract

The grid is the conceptual and formal support used as a paradigm of modernity in the plastic arts during the twentieth century, present avant la lettre in architecture, and an element of late incorporation to scenography in the conception of the scenic space, even though it is nourished by them. Given its scarce and sporadic presence on the stage in the last century, the article exposes the breath it acquires in its decline and the forms it adopts in the current century, mainly in the classical scenographic practice in the Italian-style theatre. Through a succinct selection of examples, and applying an analytical and comparative methodology, an examination and taxonomy of how the grid has been denoted in the scenic space and what it has connoted as a signifying system is provided. Text theatre, opera and dance are the artistic territories of the performing arts that have been explored to reveal the functional, plastic and significant aspects of the landscapes of geometric abstraction configured by the grid.