The Lobby

While officially regarded by prolific maestro Heinz Emigholz as a “sequel” to THE LAST CITY (p. 69) – completing a loose trilogy begun with STREETSCAPES [DIALOGUE] (Viennale’17) – this one-man tour-de-force starring veteran actor John Erdman functions splendidly on its own. Erdman, whose previous work down the decades includes collaborations on seminal dance and performance-art pieces by Yvonne Rainer and Robert Wilson, here incarnates a hyper-articulate character simply credited as “Old White Male.” Our protagonist is presented in comfortable Buenos Aires apartment-building lobbies, holding forth in erudite, sardonic fashion on mortality – and through this dark prism examining the state of humanity. Ranging freely across matters philosophical, theological and psychological, Emigholz stakes out word-centric territory somewhere between Camus’ “The Fall” and Malle’s MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. THE LOBBY is a virtuoso cine-monologue of an indelibly witty and stimulating stripe, self-referential and self-deconstructing. Once again teaming up productively with Jonathan Perel (see CORPORATE RESPONSIBILTY p. 89), Emigholz crafts an elegant frame for a sardonic, occasionally poetic exploration of fundamental ideas. (Neil Young)

In the presence of Heinz Emigholz.

Heinz Emigholz: SCHENEC-TADY I (1973, K), NORMALSATZ (1982), DER ZYNISCHE KÖRPER (1991), GOFF IN DER WÜSTE (2003), D’ANNUNZIOS HÖHLE (2005), SCHINDLERS HÄUSER (2007), LOOS ORNAMENTAL (2008), SENSE OF ARCHITECTURE (2009), ZWEI PROJEKTE VON FRIEDRICH KIESLER (2009), EINE SERIE VON GEDANKEN (2011), PARABETON – PIER LUIGI NERVI UND RÖMISCHER BETON (2012), PERRET IN FRANKREICH UND ALGERIEN (2012), ZWEI MUSEEN (2013, K)