Mute Permute

Mute Permute and The Mischievous One were both created for Cuckoo Bazaar, a major project executed as part of the Hourloupe cycle. Cuckoo Bazaar was a pseudo- theatrical performance that debuted in 1973 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Many of the works produced for Cuckoo Bazaar were made to move. They were placed on wheels, powered by motors, or worn as costumes by performers. Though some elements are readily identifiable as characters or everyday objects, the performance has no narrative. The movements— which are accompanied by a cacophonous, arrhythmic soundtrack—are slow, rarely relate to one another in legible ways, and generally resist interpretation. Dubuffet intended the shifting relations between elements to be appreciated simply as visual spectacles in themselves.