Transferred from: Building the Road and Building the Grid
Know what's going on in the circle
2024/03/29
On the evening of March 10, local time, the 96th Academy Awards in 2024 came to an end, and "Oppenheimer" directed by Nolan won 7 awards including Best Film and Best Director, becoming the biggest winner.
Inspired by Tadao Ando and Oscar Niemeyer, the simple and powerful curved decoration is a departure from previous sets and draws all attention to the stars in front of them.
© The Academy
Film, stage and architecture have been like brothers since their birth, with artistic techniques intertwined and aesthetic sensibilities in common.
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The Enlightenment of the Master
Stage set for the 2024 Academy Awards
This year's Oscars stage set, produced by Alana Billingsley and Misty Buckley, took nine months from conception to final presentation and aimed to create a "modern plaza that attracts people in".
© The Academy
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It's a magnificent yet intimate space. The textures of the lines, the soft plaster textures and the warm off-white color all draw the audience's attention to the person at the center of the stage.
—— Misty Buckley
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The ceremony is composed of different parts such as the opening, performances, tributes, and the announcement of major awards, and the stage scenes will also change colors and combinations according to the function. For example, when the award for best costume design was presented, a window in the shape of an alcove appeared in the background, showing the wonderful looks from the nominated films.
© The Academy
According to the two designers, the large, curtain-like curves of the stage were inspired by architects Tadao Ando and Oscar Niemeyer.
Japanese architect Tadao Ando, winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize, pioneered the aesthetics of fair-faced concrete with a cold gray tone – the material is expressed in its true color, and the simple geometric pattern expresses the art of light and shadow to the extreme, which is spacious, grandiose, pure and solemn.
In Ibaraki City, 25 kilometers away from Osaka, Japan, stands Tadao Ando's most iconic work, the Church of Light. The Chapel of Light embodies Ando's philosophical framework between nature and architecture: light can define and create a new sense of space like a concrete structure.
© Tadao Ando Architect&Associates
The concrete of the Church of Light has no decoration that has nothing to do with the construction process, and the gray walls, dark seats, and the sacred cross that seems to come from the sky give this church a unique solemnity and solemnity, highlighting Ando's minimalist aesthetic.
© Naoya Fujii
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In all my work, light is a particularly important controlling factor. Most of the enclosed spaces I create come from heavy concrete walls, hoping to create a place for individuals in society. When the external elements of the urban environment require walls without openings, the interior space must be particularly full and satisfying.
——Tadao Ando
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If the straight light and shadow of the Church of Light are the power of order, then the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art and the Guangdong Museum of Art are Tadao Ando's exploration of the beauty of the rhythm of curvilinear concrete.
Left: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, right: Guangdong and Art Museum
Tadao Ando's inspiration for the stage design of this Oscar comes more from materials and textures. Fair-faced concrete itself has no temperature and emotion, but it will make the space more intense and pure. On stage, the two designers captured this purity, giving the scenery a texture like the stone cut by classical architecture, without embellishment, and more solemn.
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is an advocate of modernist architecture in Latin America and is known as the "Picasso of architecture". He abandoned the cube architecture advocated by his modernist predecessors and instead used curves to bring lightness to reinforced concrete, creating a "concrete curvilinear aesthetic".
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I'm not interested in right angles and straight lines, they look incomparably hard and full of artificial marks. Instead, I was drawn to those free-flowing, sexy curves.
—Oscar Niemeyer
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In Niemeyer's writings, whether museums, churches, art galleries or schools, they seem more like sculptures than buildings.
Cathedral of Brasilia
Museum of Modern Art
Itamarati Palace
The flexible curves of the Oscar stage pay tribute to Niemeyer's architectural style, and unlike the curvilinear architecture, which is "the protagonist in itself", the set curved inward and like the curtain opens, it is easier to guide the audience to focus on the person in the center of the stage, simple and powerful, and not overpowering.
The inspiration of the times
The Golden Age of the Oscars
Compared to this year's simplicity and purity, Art Deco's intricate and extravagant style has almost monopolized the awards show set for the past decade.
The Art Deco art style evolved from the Art Nouveau movement of the late 19th century, often expressing beauty with purely decorative lines, such as fan-shaped radiating sunlight, gears, or streamlined lines. In terms of color use, bright and contrasting colors are painted, which has a strong decorative intent.
Image source network
The 2022 Oscars stage was designed by David Korins, and the shape adopts a swirl aesthetic, which is connected by arcs, and the blue and white spiral builds the sci-fi door to the future.
A giant curtain of 90,000 Swarovski crystals captures and reflects beautiful light, and more than a mile of light strips surround the crystals, turning the stage into a dazzling, futuristic focal point.
The Oscars from 2013 to 2018 were all played by the same person – Derek Mclane. From introducing 3D holographic projection technology to creating crystal worlds to paying homage to classic films, Derk has created many firsts in the history of Oscar stage design.
2013 Oscars stage set
In 2014, maximalism and industrial style were important elements of the stage design of the current year, and Derk used tungsten light bulbs in three colors: gold, blue and red, with metal sequins to create a sense of industrial nostalgia.
In 2015, Derek decorated the stage with chandeliers to create a starry sky movie dream.
In 2017, Retro and Futuristic Together, inspired by the 1935 version of the musical "Top Hat", Derek used a combination of crystal and metal geometry as a backdrop to "La La Land", the best film seed of the year.
The theme of the 2018 Oscars was "Light and Reflection", and Derek created an arch-like crystal installation using 45 million crystals of various sizes and shapes, and switched to the scene through 3D holographic projection technology according to the background of the award-winning film in different eras and regions.
Art Deco, while a movement on the modern decorative arts, is also inextricably linked to the world of architecture. In its heyday, Art Deco's architectural style became a symbol of prosperity and modernity, leaving iconic buildings in cities around the world, such as the Rockefeller Center in New York and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Today, the Art Deco-style architecture still has a unique appeal.
Rockefeller Center Image source network
Champs-Élysées Theater Image source network
Architectural background stage choreography
How to create a visual miracle?
In the theater, there is no more powerful form than space.
— George Siping
Architecture and stage design have the common characteristics of manipulating and transforming space to achieve a specific purpose, they straddle between art and technology, trying to achieve a combination of aesthetics and practicality, and many stage design masters have architectural backgrounds.
Born in Kazakhstan, George Sipin is an international choreographer with a background in architecture. At the age of 17, he entered the Moscow Institute of Architecture, but quit his job as an architect in 1981 to apply for a master's degree in stage design at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In the mid-80s, Xiping officially began his stage design career, and his repertoire such as "The Ring of the Nibelungen", "War and Peace", "Oedipus the King" and "Don Juan" has become a classic work on the contemporary opera stage.
© George Tsypin Opera Factory
George Siping's work carries a strong sense of volume, which undoubtedly comes from his background in architecture. He values the reference to all means of artistic expression and historical elements from different periods, but he believes that the most important element is undoubtedly the performance space.
West Side Story © George Tsypin Opera Factory
Fiery Angel. © George Tsypin Opera Factory
With the development of new technologies, more and more stages have begun to rely on projection and multimedia, but George Sipin believes that this is a shortcut, and there is no need to become the dominant stage. "These means are ultimately a flat thing...... In the theater, there is no more powerful form than space, we should better express the real materials, real smells, and real lives in the space, so that the audience can have a real audio-visual sensory experience in the theater. ”
Tsypin's studio at 5 Pointz. © George Tsypin Opera Factory
Grendel stage set. © George Tsypin Opera Factory
Stage design, as understood by Xiping, is a complex, creative art form that integrates various genres. The three-dimensional space environment that can be perceived on the stage is endowed with the power of mystery and meaning by the upcoming performance. He uses architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry, music to shape his work, but most importantly, to convey to the viewer the free and bold imagination.
Spiral. © George Tsypin Opera Factory
"Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark". © Jacob Cohl
In addition to stage design, Xiping is also involved in film and television design. His sculptures were invited to participate in the 2002 Venice Biennale, and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were co-directed, scripted creatively, and visually directed by Xipin.
Sochi Olympics opening ceremony. © Ralph Larmann
Theatre is the world
The art of stage architecture with the same roots
From ancient times to the present, the stage and architecture have been inextricably linked. As early as ancient Greece and Rome, people used their ingenuity to build majestic amphitheaters that provided space for performances such as fighting beasts or gladiatorial fights. The amphitheater has a long history and has evolved into an important architectural prototype.
普拉竞技场 © Jeroen Komen
In the Renaissance, the invention of perspective and the flourishing of architectural science led to the formation of modern theaters, and in the 15th and 16th centuries, the framed stage came into being in Italy. Andrea Palladio was an outstanding Italian architect who devoted his life to architecture and stage design, and the Olympic Theater, designed in collaboration with Vincenzo Scamozzi, was inaugurated in Vicenza, Italy, in 1585.
Olympic Theatre: Section
In the design of the Olympic Theater, Palladio created an "ideal city" centered on the stage by inducing a set of wedge-shaped spaces depicting urban laneways behind the stage to induce the visual effect of forced perspective, to enhance the visual perception of the space for the audience.
The Ideal City (1450) Francesca
Theater of the Olympic (1585) Palladio and Scamocchi: stage façade
Since the Olympic Theatre, the framed stage, the most widely used stage genre today, has gradually grown and developed. The use of perspective to increase the depth and create a deeper and wider feeling on the flat stage is a major innovation of Palladio's integration of architecture and stage.
Theater of the Olimpico (1585) Palladio and Scamocchi
In modern times, the types of drama and the form of spectatorship have become more and more abundant, and then they have evolved into a variety of constructions such as stretch dance, circular stage, and black box theater.
The extendable stage has a semi-enclosed structure, with a part of the stage protruding forward into the auditorium. The stretch stage is mostly suitable for singing and dancing performances, fashion displays and other occasions, allowing the audience to appreciate the charm of the performance from different angles.
延伸式舞台:拉脱维亚100周年国庆 © Didzis Jaunzems Architecture
The circular stage is to place the stage in the center of the space, so that the performance area serves as the focal point of the space, further increasing the participation of the audience. The setting of the circular stage also puts forward higher requirements for the drama, and the actors' performances need to break the "fourth wall" and welcome the eyes from all directions.
圆形舞台：融创大剧院 © Chong-Art Photography
The black box theater originated from a small experimental theater, and can even be integrated with exhibition halls and art museums. With the popularity of experimental plays, more and more large theaters have set up such theaters. Black box theatre does not have a fixed stage arrangement, it is known for its flexibility, the boundary between the audience and the stage is not clearly demarcated, and the relationship between spectators and performers can be formed naturally with different performance forms.
© performace.stageright.com
In the vision of the Taipei Performing Arts Center, Dutch architecture firm OMA maximized the characteristics of the black box theater, connecting the main theater and the multi-purpose theater to form a "super theater", so as to break through the limitations of the venue and stage more plays.
Taipei Performing Arts Center © OMA
epilogue
Philip Johnson once defined architecture as "the art of wasting space", and the same is true of stage design.
With the development of various performances, dramas, and musical and dance dramas, the scope of stage design is becoming wider and freer, and the endless new technologies have also made the stage effect more fantastic. However, for modern society, the stage has to compete with film, television, and the Internet, and it needs to create some wonderful surprises to meet the audience's audio-visual needs when entering the theater.
Post Editor|Robin Heloise
专栏/审核编辑 | Heloise 冰晔