16.05.09 - Saturday
ISTANBUL MODERN
10:30 - 12:30
PANEL 1 - Time, Presence and Transformation: Contemporary Dance Practices
Rudi Laermans, “The Present Crossing Out of ‘Presence’”
Geisha Fontaine, “Facing Time in Dance and Dance of Time”
Boyan Manchev, “Movement and Event: Contemporary Dance and the Praxis of Transformation”
13:30 - 15:30
PANEL 2 – Returning Performance: Re-enactment, Duration and the Weaving of Time
Janez Janša, “Between Two Times There is a Third One”
Adrian Heathfield, “Being in Relation”
Myriam van Imschoot, “At the New Babylon”
16:00 - 18:00
PANEL 3 – Now and Here: Which Space, Which Time?
This panel is an ACPAI organization
and is curated by Zeynep Günsür and Şafak Uysal
Hilmi Yavuz
Beliz Güçbilmez
Ersan Ocak
10:30-12:30 Panel 1
Time, Presence and Transformation: Contemporary Dance Practices
The Present Crossing Out of "Presence"
Rudi Laermans
Many theorists claim that performance in general, and dance in particular, is grounded in a particular ontology of presentness. The "now"-time that characterizes performance, thus it is argued, paradoxically combines appearance and disappearance according to the logic of the trace in which presence differs and defers from itself. Yet, this ontology of presentness not only typifies performance but every communication process. Moreover, the "now"-time of a contemporary dance performance usually is a heterogeneous reality that combines different kinds of temporality in different media (movement, light, sound...) into an assembled co-presence that overflows perception, thus questioning the possibility of a totalizing viewpoint. However, the most fundamental point in theorizing the ontology of presentness/performance regards the split between "the actual" and "the virtual": every "now" is haunted by the impossibility of the actualization of the many other possibilities (qua movement, lighting, ...) which it simultaneously evokes and undoes. In my lecture, I will try to unfold these - admittedly abstract - assertions by a selective and sometimes willingly unorthodox use of some of the basic insights of contemporary social systems theory.
Rudi Laermans is professor of social theory at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; he also teaches Theory at PARTS, the Brussels based international dance school directed by A.T. De Keersmaeker (Rosas) and held the Valeska Gert guest professorship in dance studies at the Free University of Berlin during the winter semester of 2008-09. He published widely on contemporary social and cultural theory, cultural policy & cultural participation, and the sociology of the arts. He is also active as an essayist within the fields of contemporary dance and the fine arts, with many publications in catalogues, art magazines, and scholarly books and journals (such as Performance Research). He is currently writing a book on contemporary dance that is partly based on depth-interviews with dancers/choreographers from various generations.
Facing Time in Dance and Dance of Time
Geisha Fontaine
Time is a key issue in artistic, scientific and philosophical research. The existence of a form of time specific to choreographic creation cannot be separated from the presence of the body, itself subject/object/and material of dance. Here the body is conceived as an ephemeral being producing another one: the dance movement. What kind of temporality does dance create according to the various aesthetical challenges and processes of composition, of movement structuring and of improvisation? Contemporary dance proposes an intensive time, conducive to the perpetual becoming of things. The time of dance is at once a creative force and a created entity; it is a face-to-face experience, an assertion of reality up to its withdrawal.
In this presentation, I will describe several time strategies adopted in contemporary dance, referring to selected choreographers (Merce Cunningham, Jérôme Bel and others). I will search how the present relates to memory in movement effectuations and composition processes, changing this present into presence. I will explore briefly how the philosophical aporia of time relates to dance investigation and how more or less consciousness of our death relates to the dancing body. Finally, I will analyse how time is built up and perceived by spectators during the performance. A presentation of different dance creations, including my personal artistic approach, will illustrate these analyses.
Geisha Fontaine received her doctorate in Philosophy of Art (Université Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris) and published Les danses du temps (Centre national de la danse, 2004). She taught at Université Paris-V within the dance curriculum and was a member of the laboratory of research on Performing Arts at the Centre national de la recherché scientifique (CNRS). Her writing has appeared in numerous academic publications, and journals including Nouvelles de danse, Mouvement and Kinem. She is a member of "Praticables," a project initiated by University of Valenciennes, which gathers numerous academics and artists. Also a dancer and a choreographer, she develops her own artistic practice within the company "Mille Plateaux Associés," which she co-directs with Pierre Cottreau. Together, they have created over 11 choreographic works, including Lex, Moi, Je ne suis pas un artiste and Une pièce mécanique.
Movement and Event: Contemporary Dance and the Praxis of Transformation
Boyan Manchev
In this lecture I will try to relate my recent work on the categories of movement, change, metamorphosis and event, developing further their fundamental connection with the category of time. The methodological presumption of the analysis will be neither phenomenological nor psychological. It won't be ontological either but instead it will be onto-aisthetical. This position is radically materialist: it doesn't divide the field of sensible experience (the Greek aisthesis) from the action in the world, i.e. from political praxis.
How does the onto-aisthetical perspective relate to the reflection on contemporary dance? My aim is not to apply the ontological perspective to contemporary dance but to shed some light on the point where the onto-aisthetic categories and the practice of contemporary dance meet: the point where a post-transformationist praxis starts to emerge. At the moment when the forces of the global capitalism are absorbing further each day the potential for transformation in order to submit it to the imperatives of the (economic) growth, which resulted in the alteration of "our" world, the transformation of the transformation is our task: philosophical, artistic, political.
Boyan Manchev is Director of Program and Vice-President of the International College of Philosophy in Paris and Associate Professor of Literary Theory and Philosophy at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. Guest Professor at the Sofia University and at the Academy for Theater and Film, he also organized and collaborated in numerous projects including ZKM (Karlsruhe), Tanzquartier (Vienna), CND (Paris), ICA (Sofia), Apexart (New York) and Kunsthaus (Dresden). Manchev was a guest researcher at the l'INaLF, CNRS, Paris (2000), the Free University of Berlin (2001), ZKM, Karlsruhe (2004), EHESS, Paris (2006), IWM, Vienna (2008) and the Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche, Weimar (2009); and was also a Mellon Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) and NEXUS Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia (CAS). Manchev has also collaborated with artists in different fields and has recently participated in the projects "The Frequently Asked" by Tim Etchells and Adrian Heathfield (Tanzquartier Wien, 2007), the movie Moonlake by Ivan Stanev (2007) and the theatre play Svidrigajlov by Ani Vaseva (Sfumato, Sofia, 2008). His bibliography includes more than a hundred books, essays, articles and interviews in French, English, Bulgarian, German, Italian and Russian. Some recent publications of Manchev include: L'altération du monde: Pour une esthétique radicale (Paris: Lignes, 2009); La Métamorphose et l'Instant (Paris: La Phocide, 2009); Rue Descartes 64: La metamorphose, ed. by B. Manchev (Paris, PUF, 2009); The Body-Metamorphosis (Sofia: Altera, 2007).
13:30 - 15:30 Panel 2
Returning Performance: Re-enactment, Duration and the Weaving of Time There is a Third One
Janez Janša
In the re-enactment of the two neo-avant-garde performances made in Slovenia, Pupilija, papa Pupilo and the Pupilceks (1969) and Monument G (1972), there is constant display and displacement of times: the time of the original performance is lost not by the fact that it wouldn't be possible to re-enact the original piece, but becauseit is impossible to re-enact spectators of the time. In Pupilija, papa Pupilo and the Pupilceks the main approach was the display of different ways of copying, appropriating and re-enacting. So, what one sees is actually 3 performances at once: the original one, the re-enacted one and the third which happens in tangentially to the two first ones. The re-enactment of Monument G is based on referring. The cast is made of two performers who performed in the original piece (1972) and two performers which were born after the show has been made. All of them refer to the lost original as the spectator is put in the position of zooming on different times.
Janez Janša is author, performer and director of interdisciplinary performances such as Miss Mobile, We Are All Marlene Dietrich For - Performance for Soldiers in Peace-Keeping Missions (together with Erna Omarsdottir) and Pupilja, Papa Pupilo and the the Pupilceks - Reconstruction. His visual works include Refugee Camp for the First World Citizens, and NAME Readymande. He is the author of the book on Jan Fabre (JAN FABRE - La Discipline du chaos, le chaos de la discipline, Paris, Armand Colin, 1994; and published in Dutch, Italian and Slovene) and has been editor in chief of MASKA, performing arts journal from 1999 to 2006. He is the director of Maska, institute for publishing, production and education, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Being in Relation
Adrian Heathfield
In this talk Heathfield discusses the aesthetics of duration and questions the models of time through which performance art has predominantly been interpreted. Taking as its starting point Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano's Art/Life One Year Performance (1983-1984) in which the artists were tied together for an entire year without touching, Heathfield explores the question of what it means to be in relation. Tracing this problematic back through the co-ordinates of early performance art, the talk emphasizes the dynamics of movement and affect inherent in such relations and their ethical import. This reading then forms the ground for an interrogation of contemporary debates around the cultural value of "relational aesthetics."
Adrian Heathfield is a writer and curator working on and in the scenes of live art and performance. He is Professor of Performance and Visual Culture at Roehampton University, London. His latest book, Out of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh, is published by LADA and the MIT Press in March 2009.
At The New Babylon
Myriam Van Imschoot
Tele-communication has not only inflected our notions of space in an increasingly globalized world, but also reconfigured our perception of time. In "At the New Babylon," Myriam Van Imschoot evokes the phone shop as the allegorical site for a blind date with the past. It is a parable on history from the angle of sound. "At the New Babylon" was featured in the art event Manifesta in Italy (2008) as part of the contribution of the collective Uqbar. It was first written on the occasion of a lecture at the Jan Van Eyck Academy. In iDANS it will be for the first time read with sound accompaniment.
Reading by: Myriam Van Imschoot | Story: Myriam Van Imschoot | Sound: Adham Hafez and Myriam Van Imschoot
Myriam Van Imschoot (1969) studied Germanic Philology and Theater Studies at the KULeuven and University College of London. After being first a dance critic and dance scholar, the focus of her work shifted since 2004 to curatorship, dramaturgy, mentorship and her own performance work. She has been working with Meg Stuart, Benoît Lachambre, Philipp Gehmacher, Steve Paxton, Vera Mantero, etc. Together with Jeroen Peeters, she is the artistic director of Sarma, a discursive workplace for criticism, dramaturgy and artistic research in the field of dance and beyond. In 2008 she directed the performance Pick up Voices, in collaboration with Christine De Smedt (premiere during Intimate Strangers Festival in Brussels) and co-directed Living with the theater collective Tristero. Her work has been awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Die Höge and the Flemish Government. Currently she is in residence at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht with "Crash Landing Revisited (and more)," a research project that she initiated in 2007 and that grew into several collaborations dealing with improvisation, oral history, sound and catastrophe-aesthetics.
Adham Hafez is a choreographer, performer and composer, also founder and current director of HaRaKa, Egypt's only movement research project, and director of "TransDance" Festival. He received First Prize for Choreography. Receipient of certificates of Excellence and Merit from Cairo Opera House, Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and others, Adham Hafez is engaged in practice and theory around semiotics, post-medium practices, rituals, and hybrid forms. His hybrid work has been presented in Egypt, the Arab Speaking World and Europe
16:00 - 18:00 PANEL 3
Now and Here: Which Space, Which Time?
This panel is and ACPAI organization and is
curated by Zeynep Günsür and Şafak Uysal
In the panel series entitled "Yeninin Seyri, Seyrin Yenisi,"[1]realized by Contemporary Performing Arts Initiative in collaboration with Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, writers/researchers from different disciplines have been coming together every month throughout the 2008-2009 season in order to discuss the new forms sought by dance, theater and performance within the local context.
The eighth session of the series, "Now and Here: Which Space, Which Time?," takes place this time within the frame of iDANS Festival. In this panel, Hilmi Yavuz will be discussing Islamic Culture's take on time. Beliz Güçbilmez will compare the understanding of "perspective" in the theater of the West to the perception of an "expanded present" in Turkish Theater. Finally, Ersan Ocak will focus on the use of video on stage and discuss its conflictual encounter between the principle of "here and now" that has been a fundamental reference point of contemporary performance.
For more information on ACPAI:
www.cgsg-tr.org
http://www.bagimsiz-seyir.blogspot.com
http://bagimsizbulten.blogspot.com
Hilmi Yavuz
In this presentation, the relationship between Islam and time will be explored. It will be discussed whether or not there is a different perception of temporality in Islam than the one in Christianity. Has an Islamic understanding of temporality blocked the possibility of "progress"? Has Islam been thus disabled by orientalist assumptions?
Hilmi Yavuz (1936, İstanbul) graduated from Istanbul Kabataş Erkek Lisesi. After his studies at Istanbul University School of Law, he worked as a journalist. During his post at the BBC Radio in England (1964-1969) he completed his college level studies at London University, Philosophy Department. He returned to Turkey and wrote in newspapers such as Cumhuriyet, Milliyet and yeni Ortam with the nickname "Ali Hikmet." He taught "Philosophy" and "History of Civilizations"at Mimar Sinan University and Boğaziçi University. Currently, he teaches at Bilkent University, Department of Turkish Literature. He has numerous books of poetry such as Bedreddin Üzerine Şiirler, Doğu Şiirleri, Yaz Şiirleri, Gizemli Şiirler, Zaman Şiirleri, Yolculuk Şiirleri, Hurufî Şiirler ve Kayboluş Şiirleri. A collection of his poetry entitled Büyü'sün Yaz! was published by Yapı Kredi Publications in 2006. A part of his essays and critical reviews have been published in his books such as Felsefe ve Ulusal Kültür, Roman Kavramı ve Türk Romanı, Kültür Üzerine, İnsanlar, Mekanlar, Yolculuklar, Özel Hayattan Küreselleşmeye, Budalalığın Keşfi, Kara Güneş, Sözün Gücü, Bulanık Defterler, Edebiyat ve Sanat Üzerine Yazılar ve Biz Bu Dünyadan Değil miydik? He also authored a book of three narratives: Taormina, Fehmi K.'nın Acayip Serüvenleri ve Kuyu. He received the Yeditepe Poetry Award in 1978 with Doğu Şiirleri and Sedat Simavi Literature Award in 1987 with Zaman Şiirleri . Upon his translation of the Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda'a poems into Turkish in his 100th birthday, he received a special award from the Head of the Republic of Chile.
Beliz Güçbilmez
There is a significant difference between local dramatic literature and that of the West in their conception of time. Conventional European drama conceives the present and the past as a continuum, locating this understanding at the epicenter of its dramatic structure. In this sense, the present becomes intelligible only when viewed through the past. This dramatic principle is linked to the principle of perspective which has been preserved by Western theater for many centuries. What takes place in the "present" of the play and, the past which makes the "present" possible are placed within a structure referring to a point behind as in perspectival painting. This point also carries the key to decode the primary meaning of the text. In a way, this geometry depends on the perspective of the writer, and has been tried as a technique in Western theater which enables the spatialization of time.
This is a condition which local dramatic literature fails to meet despite the attempts of the local theater bureacuracy to favor plays that display this characteristic temoral structure of Westen theater. Instead of the proposition "something happened in the past" to be taken as a model, local theatrical texts have shifted towards the proposition "some day something happens." This proposition changes radically the perception of the moment - broken free of the past and the future. A text that holds onto its own present undermines exteriority and representationality and constructs an expanded "now". So, if "performance" constructs itself at the margins not of translations but of local theatrical tradition, isn't it necessary that a local performance tradition becomes a different site of struggle than that of the West?
Beliz Güçbilmez (1971, Ankara). After receiving her BA from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Economics, got her MA and Doctorate degrees at the Theater Department of the same university. She worked as a research assistant at Mersin University Faculty of Fine Arts, Stage and Costume Design Departmen between 1996-2000. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Theater Department of Ankara University. Besides her theoretical work, Güçbilmez is also involved in translation and playwriting. She is one of the directors of Tiyatro Dergisi. Her published works include Sophokles'ten Stoppard'a İroni ve Dram Sanatı (2005), Oyunlar: Kül Bellek / Frida (2006) and Zaman/Zemin/Zuhur: Gerçekçi Türk Tiyatrosunda Minyatür Kurgusu (2007). Her translations are: Karakterin Ölümü: Modernizmden Sonra Tiyatro / Elinor Fuchs, Aşkın İcadı / Tom Stoppard, Avant-Garde Tiyatro / Christopher Innes (co-translation).
Ersan Ocak
For Ocak, the use of video on stage in current theatrical works has almost become one of the criteria of being "contemporary". In other words, the use of video projection in dance, theater and performance has become a widespread tendency. Mostly, video - from its production to its projection - as a stage element seems to be chosen without serious consideration of what it really transforms concerning the space and temporality of performance. Given this, one can perceive a paradoxical situation. A "contemporary" performance is marked by operating through the notion of the "present" and the co-presence of the artist and the audience, experiencing a common "now and here." This experience is limited to the number of people who can be hosted in the theater. Today, the transcendence of this limit via the use of video is sought for two major reasons: 1) For the work to survive in the future, 2) For the work to reach more people, and authorities such as curators, cultural operators, etc. It is at this point where the paradox emerges.
Ersan Ocak (1969) MA in Urban Policy Planning (Middle East Technical University); PhD from the Institute of Social Sciences, Bilkent University. He worked as a researcher at the Department of Political Sciences and Public Policy and GİSAM of METU and as instructor at Başkent University Department of Radio, Television and Film. He has been working with [laboratuar] since 2003. Ocak has been working as an independent researcher and director in two main fields: socio-cultural research on the politics of urban spaces, place and memory, and documetary and experimental film projects related to similar topics as well as video-performances and installations.
[1] The phrase means both "Navigating the New, a New Navigation" and "Viewing the New, a New View"
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