Choreography Was Realised Through Different Sorts of Non-Institutional Platforms Such As Fostering Creativity And
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© Publishers: Goethe-Institut Warsaw, The Centre for Culture in Lublin, East European Performing Arts Platform, Motus o.s. / Alfred ve dvoře in Prague and the State School of Dance and Authors Coordination: Renata Prokurat, Paweł Wasilewski Design: Manuka Studio Photo on the cover: Joanna Ruta Baranowska Proofreading: Jonathan Walsh IDENTITY.MOVE! is coordinated by Goethe-Institut Warsaw in cooperation with The Centre for Culture in Lublin, East European Performing Arts Platform, Motus o.s. / Alfred ve dvoře in Prague and the State School of Dance With the support of the Culture Programme of European Union The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Warsaw, March 2015 ISBN 978-83-919263-5-2 Table of contents Foreword 6 Editor’s Note 9 IDENTITY.MOVE! project 11 description (artists, partners, curators) 12 map 86 Dancing Politics 87 Bojana Kunst The Participatory Politics of Dance 88 Mark Franko The Politics of Expression (excerpts) 94 Ulas Aktas Art, technologies of the self and the acceleration of the civilisatorial process. Sketches to Foucault’s aesthetics of existence 103 Kattrin Deufert & Thomas Plischke Arachnophilia – who’s afraid of the female artist? 122 Identity does not exist 137 Marta Keil, Weronika Szczawińska A Map of Questions 138 Keith Hennessy Notes on Queer Performance 140 Natasha Hassiotis Identity in Greece in the context of economical, social and political crisis 144 Chiara Bottici European Identity and the Politics of Remembrance (excerpts) 150 A Look on the “Eastern Belt” 164 12 texts on the status of contemporary dance in the local context of different Eastern countries Timing the Process 256 Wojtek Ziemilski Taking The Signs On The Road 257 Mladen Stilinović The Praise of Laziness 263 Dorota Sosnowska Fake it!: Re-Enactment, Documentation and Dance 266 Center/Periphery 279 Karol Radziszewski Europe is not ready for this 280 Ana Vujanović The Tiger’s Leap: a Method of Reloading the History of Local Scenes 285 Iulia Popovici The New Eastern Block 298 Jan Sowa The King’s Phantom Body. A Peripherial Struggle with the Modern Form. Introduction (excerpts) 307 Contributors 331 5 Foreword Dr. Georg M. Blochmann IDENTITY.MOVE! was conceived in the framework of the Culture programme of the European Union by the Goethe-Institut Warsaw, the Centre for Culture in Lublin, the State School of Dance in Athens and a consortium of Prague-based dance and performance institutions, consisting of Ponec Theatre, Tanec Praha, Alta and Alfred ve Dvoře. IDENTITY.MOVE! focused on dancers, choreographers and performers in what we called ‘the Eastern Belt of the European Union’, a region stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. Thus, it gathered partners from 14 countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece. With the help of these partners and a curatorial team of performative arts experts, 24 artists were approached to join the project and work in pairs in a research process on ways to materialise an artistic identity linked to specific traces of this Eastern Belt, whether historical, social, political or aesthetic. The artists gathered for a symposium in Lublin in March 2014, then at four residencies in the summer of 2014 - at PACT Zollverein in Essen, Stary Browar in Poznań, as well as in Athens and Prague - to work on this issue autonomously. 6 This artistic research was never meant to end in a final product like a stage production but to be used as an open space for thoughts, exchange and consideration: Who are we? Where do we come from? What do we have to say? How do we want to express it? Nevertheless, the audience has to be involved, as there is no performative art without an audience, without the public. This is why an interactive website was initiated, www.identitymove.eu, while a Facebook fan page spread whatever emerged from the artists group. In autumn and winter, the artists travelled to different regions, hosted by local partners, giving workshops and performance lectures or participating in festivals, thus reaching out with their experience to diverse local audiences. The grand finale took place in Prague, a city situated in the very heart of Europe. Here, once again, all the artists met, working together on presenting the fruits of this research process, at last made tangible. This was an adventurous enterprise, a risky challenge for each of them – and, at the same time, a unique opportunity and gift for an audience willing to follow an international group of young artists along their creative path. It was called BAZAAR, a market place for colorful ideas and dynamic exchange, a week of workshops, lectures, discussions and performances, gathered together at a regional transdisciplinary festival. This book is the last step of IDENTITY.MOVE!. It was always intended to be an e-book: immaterial and not for sale; 7 an interjection more than a statement, thus mirroring the idea of the project. IDENTITY.MOVE! has come to an end. The question of whether identity can be ‘identified’ remains open – as it should, if we want to move on. Editor’s Note Marta Keil While thinking about notions of the ‘local’, the ‘regional’ and the ‘authentic’ in a social and economic context, one sees these terms becoming increasingly blurred. What remains when the ‘local’ turns out to be a mere product? How does this constant shift between locations, contexts and cultures influence artists’ work? How do these artists elaborate their ways of communicating their practice, while challenging the status of mobility, instability, being-in-motion? Where are the centre and peripheries and how do they influence working conditions? Is the East still running after the West? And what does ‘the East’ mean, after all? These were the main questions we asked while creating IDENTITY.MOVE! - a temporary space for sharing knowledge, experience and intuitions for performing artists working in so-called ‘East Europe’ - a Europe which, for many, remains on the peripheries. The geopolitical situation definitely influences artistic practice, not necessarily always thematically, but mainly through accessible working conditions and artists’ position in society. The neoliberal system of artistic production in Europe has forced performing artists, dancers and choreographers to develop the skills of mobility, adjustment and flexibility, making them 9 a group of precarious culture producers. Paradoxically, even if their attitude towards the system is critical, they do perfectly meet, willingly or not, the standards of the neoliberal, ‘westernised’ countries. Therefore, IDENTITY.MOVE! aimed to create the opposite - long-term, research-based residencies, which were not supposed to provide any ready product: no performance, no exhibition, no article; nothing which could be judged, rated or sold. The goal was to give artists time and space to do their own research: let them think, work, try out different directions and let them focus only on the process itself, to use the time as they want. This book draws the landscape we have all passed through over the last two years. The path of questioning different concepts, testifying about new conditions, challenging the usual ways of working, struggling with both stress and slackness, refusing the necessity to always be productive, creative, attractive. It consists of material we were working on at different phases of the project, as well as contextual materials concerning the crucial points of our common research: Identity, ‘Easterness’, Politics of Dance, Time and Process. Did we manage to make the IDENTITY.MOVE! process tangible? I don’t think so - it does not seem to be graspable. But maybe we could still inspire a reader to pursue her own research. IDENTITY.MOVE! was a transnational platform for theoretical and artistic research in the field of contemporary dance and related performing arts focusing on the ‘Eastern Belt’ of Europe: Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia. IDENTITY.MOVE! was aiming to challenge the notion of identity in the contemporary social, economic and political context of performing arts field. 24 dance artists were working on these topics with the support of coaches, tutors, theorists and other artists. IDENTITY.MOVE! consisted of 4 main phases, concluded with 4 events: Kick-Off meeting in Athens (September 2013), Symposium in Lublin (March 2014), LAB residencies in Athens, Essen, Poznań and Prague (summer 2014) and Bazaar in Prague (March 2015). IDENTITY.MOVE! was coordinated by Goethe-Institut Warsaw in cooperation with Centre for Culture Lublin, Obcanske sdruzeni Motus in Prague and the State School of Dance in Athens with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union. 12 Artists Albena Baeva Albena Baeva was born in 1983 in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2010 she obtained a degree in the Digital Art master programme at the National Academy of Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since 2008 she has realized various workshops in Sofia, as well as one in Amsterdam and one in Berlin. They included workshops on “programming reactive live visuals”, multichannel audio installations, “re- discovering sound and instrument building” and an animation workshop. Since 2008 she made different exhibitions in Bulgaria but also abroad – in Italy and Finland. Baeva works in the fields of interactive design, experimental video, sound art and performance art. She is the co-organizer of Dorkbot Sofia and Ignite Sofia and is the co-founder of Reaktiv. She uses open source software and DIY practices for building new musical instruments and interactive installations for urban spaces and galleries. In 2009 Albena Baeva founded the Runabout project, which was a platform for communication and interaction between artists and musicians.