The SAT dome always seems, when you walk in after being away on vacation for a long time, to have changed in size. Smaller at first glance, larger than you expected once you sit down in one of the bean bag chairs arranged in a semicircle. As if you were about to take part in a guided meditation.
Last night, at the premiere of the performance *IN THE END, IT’S ALL THE SAME THING* by the Cristo brothers and Francisco Riffo—conceived as part of the SAT’s residency program—the dome’s dizzying effect was amplified tenfold. In the center stood a technical table with a small dome on top, surrounded by screens, keyboards, wires, and bolts.
Both domes—the large one and the tiny one—were both ocean blue.
UNIVERSAL CONNECTIONS, TECHNOLOGICAL ENTROPY
The performance lasts 40 minutes and is part poem about the universe, part metaphysical exploration of natural entropy. The brothers sit facing each other, without really looking at one another, and one composes music on a synthesizer using a computer keyboard while the other manipulates the small dome. He writes on it, spins it, pours ink and alcohol onto it, and places his fingers on it like spider legs.
The theme of this performance is a reunion between the two brothers, artists who haven’t worked together in some time and who play with creating surreal images by using the infinitely small as if it were the infinitely large. Every performance will be different, because natural elements (water, a leaf picked just an hour earlier) are vectors of a completely disordered world—a sublime and somewhat unsettling entropy.
A few hazy memories, a few lines of poetic text—“IT’S LIKE FLYING,” “I DREAM A DREAM OF YOU US”—and a lot of movement in the image projected onto the dome. Amid these pockets of the natural world manipulated on a grand scale were 3D renderings of mountains and electrical storms.
One imagines that this world represents the inner lives of the Riffo Gómez brothers. It makes your head spin a little, but that’s okay.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Where? Société des Arts Technologiques [SAT], at 1201 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
When?
Performance
July 28, 29, 30, 31, and August 1, 2026 / at 6 p.m.
Film
August 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 15, and 18 / at 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
September 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 18, and 19 / at 7 p.m.
What? Tickets start at $21.
