“Triumph” of Collaboration
April 20, 2018
Graduate students bring 400-year-old artwork to life.
By Lauren Brown / Maryland Today
A little-known fact: The 17th-century Dutch could throw street parties of historic proportions.
Their annual ommegang, or walking festival, mashed up elements of a parade, carnival, civil rally, religious procession and social event; the one honoring the Archduchess Isabella in 1615 in Brussels was a spectacle of colorful costumes and banners, musicians, marching craft guilds, live horses and camels, and lavish giant puppets and floats—1,400 processioners in all.
The artist Denys Van Alsloot captured this scene in his six large panoramic, extraordinarily detailed oil paintings called “The Triumph of Isabella,” the subject of a unique yearlong exploration of art through performance and performance through art at UMD and the focus of performances on Thursday and Sunday.
They will combine live performances of theatre, dance, music and acrobatics; examples of contemporary street theatre presented by an expert from Warwick University in England; augmented reality demonstrations; an exhibition on the art in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library; and an immersive experience that brings the art to life through animation and soundscape.
Read the complete article and view the photo gallery in Maryland Today
Photo by John T. Consoli