Friday, 13 June
The possibility of (analytical/ poetic/ constructive/ experimental/ ___) criticism in the field of contemporary performing arts. Remixes and explanations on the triology published in the journal Teater. Muusika. Kino.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty is known as the spokesperson for the importance of body in 20th century philosophy. This year, one of his main works, The Phenomenology of Perception, celebrates 80 years since its release. Having researched the philosopher, it seems to me that this book is still far from being interpreted and understood exhaustively. As one of its main themes is corporeity, my interest lies in its research through embodiment itself, reading it bodily.
For the workshop, I've chosen citations from The Phenomenology of Perception, that participants can use as scores affecting their movement. Together, we'll explore how body phenomenology is expressed in the body, and how bodily experiences translate into verbal sharing. We'll work through topics like the senses, exteriority and ecstasy, expression and openness to others, and tune ourselves to the "singing of the world".
Notation has long served as a trusted vehicle between concept and sound, circumventing the limitations of oral tradition to secure an afterlife for melodies long gone-by. Its undeniable success in this role has, however, left it somewhat conjoined to the musical, perhaps to the obscuration of possibilities already within.
Through the lens of gesture, this presentation follows these inky forms as they extend from the body of their creator to that of the onlooker, carrying with them a whole host of intricately entangled, but not necessarily musical, histories and potentialities.
Rest your head on my lap
Over the past three years, I have tended time and again to place myself in the role of giver or (service) provider, sometimes embodying a doctor, sometimes a nurse, then a carer, angel or an embalmer, always ambivalently acting somewhere between myself and the character. I've tried to fill the gaps that might be left uncovered in everyday life; I morph into a substitute, hoping to offer some kind of invigoration. In my practice, I am interested in semi-personal encounters; in the relationship that develops between service provider and client, giver and receiver, performer and audience member.
In the theoretical part of the presentation, I will share the searches and discoveries I have made to date, having been driven by a curiosity to explore the longing for intimacy, nurturing and care. In the physical part, we will experiment with the dynamics of care and power through movement together.
My presentation is an attempt to open up my work to the audience from the perspective of both visual arts and choreography, by analysing one exhibition and one performance from my portfolio, chosen on spot, in free-form.
What could be considered embodied cooking? And what happens when we start to mix the knowledge of dance and choreography into that of cooking? Can there be other relations to food than that of consumption? And for what reason is that important to deal with? Who could be considered a microbial choreographer? What is intimacy with food and cooking? What is fermentation? What if cooking literally came from our bodies or the body was our kitchen? We will make small jars with fermentations relating to these questions.
Artist in residence at Copper Leg Residency –
Cuteness
During my two-week residency at Copper Leg Art Residency, I will expand and refine materials developed during my previous research residencies in England. The first week will focus on movement exploration, while the second will incorporate text and sound in remote collaboration with composer and DJ Harry Wright (Mun Sing).
My research interrogates cuteness and its societal impact: how it shapes identity, evokes emotions, and holds power over spectators. I will explore its connections to happiness, innocence, the uncanny, and hypersexualisation in digital culture. This project aims to define what a cute dance is, offering creative perspectives on transformative, agentic, and playful performance in contemporary (online) performative practices.
Rooted in the writings of Karen Barad and Erin Manning, this practice focuses on the interplay between movement and perception, attempting to interact with what is residing in, vibrating through and shaping the bodies of our time.
What does it mean to allow movement to body? What are the ways we can practice movement as an attempt to wit(h)ness the contemporary body?
Where do we go from here?”
In my presentation, I would like to introduce the sign behaviours in contemporary performing arts that I call anti-theatricality and reflect on them with participants. Performance situation depends on the unique sign structure to be as such, distinguishing it from daily life outside the stage. Even the daily functional signs could turn into artistic signs, which mechanism is studied by Petr Bogatyrev and Erika Fischer-Lichte as a sign of signs. Today, I have observed that these artistic signs are approached more in a complex manner, and that may be one of the characteristics of contemporary performing arts.
Oh boy, you are going to set your SUV on fire.
The summer of 2023 was the hottest in the history of the Northern Hemisphere, forests in the US, Russia, and Greece are burning, Rwanda, Congo, and Belgium are experiencing floods, and biodiversity in the Philippines, Indonesia, and India is disappearing at an accelerating rate. Protests are being restricted by new laws, climate activists are silenced through courts and police, and in some countries, activists simply "disappear" (Berglund et al., 2024).
A search for control in an environment, where you have been stripped of any ability to control the situation. Pursuit of climate justice in a country where the national car is an SUV and the national heroes are young men with fast computers and old men who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Search for methodology for demanding a brighter and joyful future.
The academic poetic-political lecture, which is an extended version of Margaret Tilk’s showing at the Kanuti Gildi SAAL residency, is a continuation of a search that has, at one stage, taken the form of a scientific article: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.9042
In this presentation I will give a brief overview of the year 2024 in Estonian dance theatre and of the reception of premiered dance productions. The aim of the presentation is to draw interest and focus from the performance to the review as an art form on its own and as one of the few available ways for recording dance. Unlike classical drama theatre, dance performances tend not to leave a textual or material trace. Thus, reviews and video recordings of performances are the main ways of approaching theatrical events that have already taken place. The presentation will shed light on: How many productions premiered? What is the average number of reviews per production? Who writes and where? What do the critics consider remarkable?
+ 10 min discussion
Modern society, which stresses that life is only worth living if one remains true to oneself, makes authenticity the goal in itself. "The expectation that each of us has a rich and unique 'inner life', made up of fantasies, memories, emotions and dreams, and this hidden life somehow defines our authentic self, has, after Freud, acquired the status of an anthropological generalisation", has said the medical historian and sociologist Monica Greco.
The image of a dancer, locked between her inner world and the walls of the studio, has largely defined the image of dance, at least since Martha Graham. Yet we like to talk about dance as something that brings people together, exalts and unites communities. In short, we like to emphasize the social power of dance more than the dancer´s individualistic ambitions in it. There is a some strange contradiction in that.
According to the prevailing perception in Western culture, authenticity, whether called integrity, honesty, genuineness, or something else, can mostly be found through an exhausting journey of introspection, because the ultimate truth lies within ourselves. A journey that is somehow similar to a dancer's journey to professionalism, and which could also be characterized by a debilitating sense of loneliness. Here, too, progress is often achieved at the cost of detachment from society.
+ 10 min discussion
Circle discussion:
What is currently happening?
We gather together to look back and digest the 2-day programme, aiming to map out the main currents of movement and take note of distinct landmarks.
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