Richard Fletcher, associate professor in the Department of Classics, has organized The Cave of Light: A Dark Symposium to take place at the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater on Monday, April 1 at 4 p.m.

The event, a collaboration between Fletcher and artists Josiah McElheny and Pablo Helguera, will feature two live performances and a fictional séance.

After an introduction, the program will begin with Helguera’s performance of a new version of The Glass Lawyer, a short story by Miguel de Cervantes about a man who believed he is made of glass. McElheny will stage a bilingual performance in English and German of The Light Club of Batavia by Paul Scheerbart, a short story that inspired much of the work in the exhibition Josiah McElheny: Towards a Light Club, on view at the Wexner Center through April 7. Additionally, there will be a fictional séance inspired by the Wexner Center building and its architect, Peter Eisenman.

Interested in the connections between contemporary art and classics, Fletcher created this event after interpreting McElheny’s reworking of The Light Club of Batavia.

“Given that I had interpreted McElheny's version of Scheerbart's story via ancient Greek and Roman texts, I wanted to create an event that would in some ways work in the same spirit,” he said.

Fletcher knew Helguera, an artist known for his socially engaged art and performances, had used classical literature and philosophy to frame contemporary cultural events in the past and felt that his work alongside McElheny’s would produce enlightening results.

“The fact that both artists knew of and respected each other’s works made the whole development of the event all the more telling and exciting,” he said.

The event is co-sponsored by the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Humanities Institute. A reception will follow the performance.

By Marissa Pacheco, editorial intern at ASC Communications