Fictions, my body – Toward Blank & In the language that you are/Picnic with animals
- Dance & performance
120 min.
Info
Eliza Trefas, Toward Blank (First the talk goes from the lips, then from the mind, then from the heart.)
Through Toward Blank, I point out the sometimes limiting effects of language in performance practice as well as in life. “We live in the description of a place and not the place itself.” (WS) There are gestures and processes that do not belong to language, that cannot be expressed, transcribed, observed, limited, explained through words. Some things can only take place in the realm of experience. I am looking for a broader sense of “silence” in the context of performance, letting meaning disappear, then discourse, then performance. Especially for those for whom words make up the world as we understand it, it sometimes seems necessary to remove language and meaning, to remove words back from the world. First speech leaves the lips, then the mind, then the heart.
Cătălina Gubandru, In the language that you are/Picnic with animals
Cătălina combines the concept presented previously in Fictions, my body, of working with language and existing through language on stage, and the concept developed this year of coexisting, living and integrating among animals, of exchanging practices (performative or not) with them, a concept tested and experimented in a residency with animals. It is an invitation to the public to explore, test and imagine during the performance the simplicity and authenticity of animals themselves, and to try a way of communication specific to them, opening the concept of language to the sphere of animals, to the language of animals, imagining language from the perspective of animals / Fiction, my body / ours / theirs. I propose an open and “safe” framework where everyone is free to explore the relationship with animals and what animal language can mean. Specifically, I propose to be animals. And, because most animals are happiest when they have something to eat, the action will happen around the concept of a picnic.
More or less ironically said, I love animals very much, the experience of living with animals, especially larger animals such as donkeys (barring exploitation of any kind), is a very powerful experience. Missing them very much and not having immediate and easy access to them, I thought of proposing this framework, of transferring to the public and experiencing the same with humans, I’m curious what will happen.
Biographies
Eliza Trefaș, performer and choreographer, works in contemporary dance and visual arts. She is currently conducting her own collaborative research and projects, interested in relating visible and invisible life forms through the body. She overcomes conventions in an attempt to open up a certain complexity and sensitivity in the way we inhabit nature, urban environments, the world. He has presented his work in contexts such as the Salonul de Proiecte București, eXplore Festival București, Bang Torres Vedras, Multiplicidades Festival Santa Cruz, RAKETE TQW, DO Festival Gdansk, National Dance Centre Bucharest. In 2021, she receives the CNDB award for her contribution to contemporary dance.
Ana Cătălina Gubandru is an independent artist, born and based in Bucharest, she works conceptually and interdisciplinary. She is a choreographer and works with different artistic concepts and media including performance/performance art, installation and participatory art. In recent years she combines working in nature and site specific with performance and stage presence. Her works are centered on presence (and absence), space and relationship with the audience. Her first piece presented in an international dance festival was in 2000. She creates and presents projects in international artist residencies and different spaces – stage, galleries, nature. Most recent appearances have been in Ostra Amtervik Sweden, Landscape Garden Rietzer Berg Germany, Sandwich Gallery CFP and Off space, National Dance Centre, personal studio in Malmaison building Bucharest, and Art Opening.
https://catalinagubandru.weebly.com/
About Fictions, my body
Fictions, my body addresses language in the performative space and intends to put different kinds of practices in dialogue. A range of artists are invited to explore the dynamics between body, presence and speech. The framework aims to make it possible for dance artists to meet the public, local and international artists, who also orient their choreographic practices through other arts (theory, philosophy, poetry, sound, visual arts). The invited artists propose other ways of working with language or different framings of it, beyond illustration, with the tension between representation and corporeality. If in last year’s Fictions, my body we were interested in the embodied presence that generates word, and the word that generates a new corporeality or embodiment of it, provoking a reflection on the boundary between reality and fiction, this year we extend the questions further towards what situations that language can create and constellate. What are the ways in which language, and its representation, its interpretation, its meaning produce different situations? How can it open up other readings of the reality we encounter? Can language, through its potential to reshape realities, go beyond language? What does the absence of language produce? What new meanings, definitions and perspectives do linguistic formulations bring to dance? This year’s format will include, in addition to performance presentations, language-challenged performative situations: labs, lectures, participatory frameworks and performance practices.
Artists
Adriana Gheorghe (laboratory & performance protocol)
Alice Chauchat (remote – shared practice)
Andreea David (workshop & performance)
Cătălina Gubandru (participatory performance)
Cosmina Moroșan & Anticorp Solar (performance with participatory framework)
Diego Agullo (laboratory, lecture & performance)
Eliza Trefas (performance)
Florin Flueras (performance)
Alexandra Mihaela Dancs & Vlad Benescu (performance)
08.12.2023
Friday
19:00
Friday
19:00
Fictions, my body - Toward Blank & In the language that you are/Picnic with animals
Eliza Trefas, Toward Blank (First the talk goes from the lips, then from the mind, then from the heart.)