VOL. 23
Adaptation (Bartleby)
The title of the installation Adaptation (Bartleby) refers both to Herman Melville's short story Bartleby the Scrivener and to Spike Jonze's film Adaptation., which is based on a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. The text tells of a copyist named Bartleby who is employed in a Wall Street law firm and who, over the course of the story, gradually refuses the work demanded of him, saying "I would prefer not to work". The film self-reflexively exposes the struggles of its screenwriter in attempting to faithfully adapt a novel. The question of the possibility of an authentic adaptation is also at the centre of Scherübel's work, in which he himself is seen in the roles of actor and spectator. In his performative adaptation - developed from Bartleby's perspective rather than that of its author - the motif of "potential non-action" (G. Agamben) becomes crucial to the production process itself. The material was first transferred to the realm of the performing arts, to be finally presented in the form of theatre photography, i.e. as an announcement and at the same time as documentation of a production that can, however, only take place in the imagination of its viewers.
With the kind support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
