Satiric atmosphere and concave world of art

Friday 03 October 2025 18:42

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Rothko in Barbican | ★★★ior

Rothko is one of the most amazing works I have ever seen on the London stage. Made by Polish director łukasz Twarkowski, this is a mash that challenges the genre of theater, direct cinema, installation art, dance and techno.

The Barbican stage is filled with a series of sets that always shift that are built in a clear box, which is pushed, join and dismantle to make restaurants and kitchens and art galleries. The giant screen divides the two spaces, where the video recordings are immediately radiant. Most of the previous Twarkowski works traditionally “in depth”, with the audience allowed to roam around space; This is a sitting production but the elements of the spirit still exist. Depending on where you sit, you will have a beneficial perspective on various aspects of the game because nothing is burning during a weak four -hour running time.

It is needed as a starting point for selling paintings in 2004 by Mark Rothko with a price of around $ 8.5 million, which, 15 years later, was found as a forgery. Tarkowski uses the story of greed and corruption to investigate the fundamental questions about art: what is that? Who decides what is the value? Can that be really ‘owned’? Does the 15 -year joy of the fake painting bring their owners to calculate anything, or do they basically have a real Rothko until then revealed as forgery?

What began as an abstract tour of the history of contemporary art became a satire of slaughtering in the art world which stated that the counterfeiting that was almost perfect was worthless while whipping NFT intangible to collectors who were easily deceived.

There is no linear narrative to be discussed dirty and for decades and for decades, at once, with Mr. Chow Restaurant who is famous in New York City, the red-plain epicenter. Rothko who is old eating at the booth there, struggling against depression and health failure; Unconsciously Gallery Dealers – or so he said – selling the paintings meets industrial contact for dinner; The man who bought the painting sank his sadness.

We also met the actor who introduced themselves with their real names – or what they are? – When they are preparing to audition as characters as characters we see on stage. Everything is reflected and reflected and replicated, nothing is intended. Finally we see the miniature version of the set, filled with a small CGI version of the character, maybe watching a smaller version of themselves, A Mad Alice in Wonderland where the rabbit hole leads to the New York gallery.

Visually, the production of perfect twarkowski, filled with texture and details. This is Wong Kar-wai to meet David Lynch, dripping in Neon, as well as familiar and hunch. Already known as one of the hottest theater makers in Europe, there is a nuance of other former baby cattle from the industry in the work of Twarkowski: The Brash Swagger of Ivo Van Hove, The Ott Showmanship Jamie Lloyd. There is also the aroma of the British theater company involved, with a strong abstraction and reluctance to sacrifice artistic services for the convenience of the audience.

And at four hours, you can expect a little discomfort. Tarkowski is not in a hurry to reach his conclusions. Some scenes are deliberately stretched to the peak point: one displaying a bed that has not been tidied up is filled with contemporary art references like you are watching the mental collapse of an aging artist occurs in real-time.

But the boy is commensurate. Tarkowski threw everything to the wall and almost all of that stuck. The results are very funny, often troubling and really gripping. This is like there is nothing you have seen before and mark Tarkowski as a director to follow the next time he explores to these beaches.

• Rothko is active until October 5 in Barbican