6.–15.3.2015

On Visibility and Amplifications

A retrospective by Isabelle Schad & Laurent Goldring

Isabelle Schad and Laurent Goldring, familiar in Berlin and known internationally, have developed an important body of work over the past seven years around the notion of “amplification”. The specific dialogue between a movement practice and a filming process is the core of their collaborative work. They have chosen to show six pieces out of the nine they did together. “Amplifiers” are devices meant to make visible the very peculiar physicality of non-representational movements through stage settings, such as a large costume, a fabric landscape or a group of performers. 

In 2012 they created "Der Bau," for which Kafka's novella by the same name was the inspiration source. It becomes the basis for their explorations to conceive a new relationship between body and space. Starting from the description of an animal’s burrow as a metaphor for the body, they have been investigating the space of the stage. 

This process was the continuation of Unturtled, a series of four pieces, from which they will present "Unturtled#1" (2008) and "Unturtled#4" (2011). In Unturtled(s) the costume is considered as a transitional object, the last layer of the body and the first encompassing space. During the creation process it became clear that space itself can be seen as an organ. Rilke’s statement that Rodin does not sculpt the body, but the spaces around them, can help us understand this idea. During their duo Unturtled#4 (Berlin Premiere) L. Goldring performs a talk on the conceptual resonances of the work. 

The group piece "Collective Jumps" addresses the topics of collectivity and resistance, investigating the possible relationships between freedom and form with a group of 16 dancers. Can the creation of an infinite, unified, monstrous body possibly become a site of resistance? Collective Jumps will be seen as stage piece and in the setting of an installation, which will be presented for the first time.

In the piece "An Unfolding Process" (2014) Isabelle Schad shares and shows different excerpts of  pieces from Unturtled to Der Bau, trying to reveal some of the process around the series of pieces created together with L. Goldring. The solo was developed and first presented in/for the frame of the Live Legacy Project: Correspondences between German contemporary dance and the Judson Dance Theatre Movement and will also be seen for the first time in Berlin.

Susanne Foellmer will honour the body of work with an overall presentation, and an exhibition of body loops by Laurent Goldring will run throughout the events.

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The retrospective is supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Regierender Bürgermeister von Berlin –Senatskanzlei – Kulturelle Angelegenheiten.