12 years of Public in Private/ Jasna L. Vinovrški & Clément Layes by Publicinprivate2020

In our way of working, each step leads to the next and what emerges is produced by the previous step. Our practices are very much grounded in an effort to listen to what is already there and therefore what can be meaningfully added. This is true for a single performance, as well as for our entire body of work.

12 Years of Public in Private

CONTENTS

I n tro d u cti o n Public in Private

Jasna L. Vinovrški & Clément Layes

Entagled Ways of Working

Martina Ruhsam

Wie die Welt wieder anders sehen

Bjoern Frers

Introduction

Mirna Žagar

Estetika u zagrljaju etike

Ivana Slunjski

Jasna L. Vinovrški

21 22

Before Public in Private

Shifting Contexts

Character Building - Solo Works

Über Sprache und Mehrsprachigkeit bei „Modal Verbs“

Katja von der Ropp

Strategies of Performativity Group Pieces

Collaborations

My Collaboration with Jasna Now and Then / Our Collaboration within the Project Blind date

Christina Ciupke

The Logic of the Fantastic

Jonas Rutgeerts

When Things Do Not (Just) Do What One Intends with Them

Martina Ruhsam

Clément Layes

Cycle of Things

81 82

84 89 113

On Rhythm On Light Design

Ruth Waldeyer

1 26

Avec Public in Private

Vincent Weber

1 28

Social Events Vibrant Community

Ivana Slunjski

3AM Tracing the Beginnings of 3AM

Uri Turkenich

1 36 1 40

Lé na Szirmay-Kalos

1 42

Flutgraben Performances In Between Individual and Collective

1 32

1 34

Montag Modus Klimata To Care to Curate

1 31

1 44 Sandra Man

1 46

Clément Layes

The Fantastic Institution Translations How To See the World Differently

Bjoern Frers

1 48 1 54 1 54

Ethics Embracing Aesthetics

Ivana Slunjski

1 55

On Language and Multilingualism in "Modal Verbs"

Katja von der Ropp

With Public in Private

Vincent Weber

Biography

1 58 1 59 1 60 1 65

Impressum

1 71

Credits

I N TRO D U CTI O N

Public in Private Jasna L. Vinovrški & Clément Layes

The frame

About the book

Public in Private, founded in Berlin in 2008, is the frame for our artistic work. The year 2020 marks 12 years of Public in Private. When planning this publication, we couldn't have imagined how pivotal this year would be for society. The corona pandemic has had and continues to have a huge impact on our lives, bringing about many negative but also positive and necessary changes to the way we live and work. The time of slowed-down activities that the pandemic incurred capacitated us to reflect on our artistic past and to look towards the future and to what this future may hold. This document brings together and makes visible our two different artistic universes, which we have been developing over the past 12 years. As collaboration lies at the core of Public in Private, we decided to construct this publication in a co-llaborative spirit. Our works are not only presented here through our own words, but also through the views of our collaborators, offered singularly or in dialogue. We invited our dramaturges, production managers, writers, artists, curators, lighting designers and performers, who we worked with over the years, to reflect on our works, what our creative processes meant for them and how it affected their professional development.

The publication is divided into three parts. The first two parts chart the development of our respective body of works, organised according to our choreographic interests and working methods which we have developed over the past 12 years. The third part of the publication brings to the forefront a side to our activities at the PiP (Public in Private) studio that is usually kept invisible: the organisation of events and residencies for artists. Here, we delve into the various artistic platforms we’ve developed together with our colleagues in order to strengthen connections between Berlin artists and the Berlin performance scene. We would like to thank all of our collaborators who generously contributed their thoughts and reflections to this publication. We are deeply thankful for having had the chance to collaborate with each of them and with many other amazing artists who crossed our path in the past 12 years. We hope our relationships will continue for many more years to come!

In this book you will find texts from : Martina Ruhsam is a writer, teacher and artist based in Frankfurt. She holds a PhD in

performance theory. Her genuine interest in new materialism connects her strongly with Clément's work, and at the same time she has been a faithful outside eye to many of Jasna’s creative processes.

Bjoern Frers has been following our works practically since the beginning of the

company. As a production manager he contributed a great deal to the professional development of the company.

Mirna Žagar is the curator of the Dance Week Festival in Zagreb and executive director

of the Dance Center in Vancouver and the Institute for Movement and Dance in Zagreb. She has been following and supporting Jasna’s work since its beginning until today.

Ivana Slunjski is an independent dance critic and researcher based in Zagreb. She has

been following Jasna’s work over the past years. Their first closer encounter took place during the first collaboration between Public in Private and Studio Contemporary Dance Company from Zagreb in 201 8.

Katja von den Ropp is a freelance dramaturg and theatre director based in Berlin. She collaborated with Jasna as a dramaturg on "Modal Verbs" in 201 5.

Jonas Rutgeerts is a dramaturg, researcher and writer based in Leuven. He holds a PhD

in philosophy and is currently associated with Cultural Studies at the KU Leuven. He has been collaborating with Clément as a dramaturg since 201 4.

Ruth Waldeyer works with lights, radio and thai boxing at the venue ausland in Berlin. She has been working as a lighting designer for Clément since 201 0.

Vincent Weber has since 201 2 collaborated with Clément on various projects.

Léna Szirmay-Kalos is an independent curator and cultural scholar based in Berlin. Together with Jasna she curated several performance events ("3AM Spring and Sprouts", "Montag Modus Klimata", "MM Listening out Loud").

Sandra Man is an artist and writer based in Berlin. Since 201 7, she has been working

with Clément and Jasna on the organization and conceptualization of the "3AM" events and the "Flutgraben Performance" series.

Christina Ciupke is a Berlin-based performer and choreographer.

She collaborated with Jasna on “Now and Then”. She also initiated and co-created the “Blind Date” project.

Uri Turkenich is a choreographer, artist and curator based in Berlin and Tel Aviv. Jasna

worked as a dramaturg on his work “I love my dancers”. Uri has co-organized many of the "3AM" events with Clément and Jasna as well as the “Längerhaltbar” event as part of the "Flutgraben Performance" series.

Entangled Ways of Working

The studio of Public in Private allows for another temporality of working since one does not have to adhere to strictly allocated rehearsal/reservation schedules. In this way, the studio is able to respond to the needs of the respective process. Insofar this working space enables the artists to counter the waxing commodification of time. One year prior to the foundation of the company, an art book with the title "Double Act. Two Artists One Expression" 1 was released. As the title suggests, the book sets forth this particular idea of artistic collaboration by portraying numerous artist couples who work together and who sublimate the pursuit of a singular artistic subjectivity to a shared artistic endeavour, namely the joint creation of artworks. The publication focuses on 14 established artist couples from the past 25 years that worked together in/as one single expressive Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes are partners in private unit, such as Gilbert & George, Ulay and Abramović, Komar & and in public, in work and life. As a couple their lives are Melamid, Eva and Adele, Tim Noble and Sue Webster among intimately woven together, they have children and a shared others. The aim of Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes is home. When working together as artists, they emphasize contrary to this mode of collaboration and the idea of the aspect of mutual support. amalgamation – that two artists (who are a couple) work together so closely that one does not have an artistic practice without the In 2008 Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes founded the other one any longer. company Public in Private in Berlin – dedicated to the In a short text about the company on their website, they point in further development of choreography as a contemporary another direction: “sustained dissonance”. Since the foundation art form. They thereby transitioned from working within of Public in Private, both Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes institutions to working as freelance artists in the free scene have been working as makers, with both of them developing and in Berlin. With the establishment of the company they presenting various performances. At the same time they often started to shape their own conditions of work. collaborate with each other in their works that carry the Ever since, the two artists have been developing artistic signature of one of them. works at the Atelierhouse Flutgraben located at Kunstfabrik In Clément Layes’ performances "Allege", "To allege" and '"Der am Flutgraben in Berlin. Working under the societal grüne Stuhl", Jasna L. Vinovrški was involved as a dramaturge, in organisation of a neoliberal economy, they resist the idea of "To allege" she was also performing, in "Things that surround us", private seclusion and the apotheosis of private property. "Title" and "Eternal Return" she was a choreographic assistant or They seek to invent counter models to the artist as selfartistic adviser. Clément Layes collaborated with Jasna L. entrepreneur or manager of him/herself. They have, since Vinovrški on the set design for her performance "Ansambl", for the very beginning of their working together, been her performance "Lady Justice" he was a stage and artistic developing two different choreographic aesthetics within advisor and for her performance "Under Construction" he was the scope of one company.

Martina Ruhsam

1 Ginsbourne, Mark/Meyer zu Kueingdorf, Ulf: Double Act. Two Artists. One Expression, Munich/Berlin/London/New York: Prestel Verlag, 2007.

involved in the development of the scenography and the video. The performance "Staying Alive" was created and performed by Jasna L. Vinovrški in collaboration with two nonhumans: a tablet and a book. Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes are interested in a form of non-exclusive collaboration that cultivates their differences and diverse fields of expertise. Hence, they affirm what the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy has called a “we" that is not predicated on the subjection of the involved entities to one common ideology, identity or project. By pursuing two different aesthetics and artistic trajectories while collaborating in the artistic processes of one another, the two choreographers foster artistic autonomy while still being dedicated to mutual support. In times in which collaboration has also become a buzzword in the context of neoliberal capitalism, which propagates collaborative working modes in view of an enhancement of profits and output, the tension between the shared and the singular is crucial for innovative modes of working together. The collaborative spirit of Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes cannot be grasped by merely considering the way in which the two artists work together. It should be seen in the context of several experimental platforms and events they co-established, co-facilitated and fostered and in which many other artists from the free scene in Berlin were involved: the "3AM" Events (2014–2017) at Atelierhouse Flutgraben, the "Flutgraben Performances" (since 2019) and "Montag Modus Klimata" (2019). Launched by Jasna L. Vinovrški, Dmitry Paranyushkin and Clément Layes "3AM" was invented to provide an opportunity to test different approaches of sharing artistic processes and works (in the making) with an audience in a rather informal atmosphere – outside of established institutions. The presentations (that altogether involved more than 200 artists and 4000 audience members) were mostly followed by a party. "3AM" aimed at countering consumption-oriented attitudes in the reception of artworks, as audience members were asked to contribute to

the realization of the event by taking care of and assuming responsibility for small tasks like preparing the spaces, washing the dishes, serving drinks at the bar or cleaning the venue after the event. In this way, the events emphasized the importance of sharing and common reflection. "Flutgraben Performances" (initiated with Sandra Man, Moritz Majce) is a series of four events each year in which 10 artists present their artistic works before or after their official premiere. In this way the artists maintain a sustained dialogue with each other, providing insights into how their works transform, grow and develop. Montag Modus Klimata was a year long interdisciplinary project curated by the collective MMpraxis (Léna Szirmay-Kalos, Dániel Kovács and Jasna L. Vinovrški). In five subsequent events, artists from Berlin and Budapest presented performances and installations at Collegium Hungaricum or at Atelierhouse Flutgraben. The engagement in and the organization of these events and platforms shows that Public in Private strives to strengthen the local performing arts scene and supports encounters and exchange. The company keeps on experimenting with divergent modes of how to create, present and perceive art – elements which it considers to be in constant entanglement with one another – while involving its social context rather than creating a private working sphere with exclusive art events. This aim is also expressed in the text "Private for Free" by Public in Private (2017): "De-privatizing ourselves goes along with the creation and the invention of a new being in culture and in relation. Every gesture, words, acted outside of the private are nowadays a form of poetry, a revolution towards the reign of property.”

Wie die Welt wieder anders sehen?

der Aufklärung, derzufolge 1 + 1 immer 2 ergibt, außer Kraft gesetzt wird, dann legt sich kurz ein Zauber über die Welt und sie erscheint in einem anderen Licht.

Und diesem Zauber bin ich immer wieder in den Arbeiten von Public in Private begegnet und erlegen. Vielleicht am einfachsten verdeutlicht am Beispiel von „Allege", dem Solo, mit dem alles und auch ich anfing. Die amüsante Eingangsszenerie von „Allege", in der ein schrullig wirkender Typ schier ungelenk aber mit größtem Körpereinsatz entlang absurd wirkender Planungen eine Pflanze mit einem geschickt auf dem Körper balancierten Glas Wasser gießen möchte, kulminiert in ein Spiel um Bedeutungen der Dinge. Das zuvor verschüttete Wasser wird kurzerhand zum Ozean, der nasse Lappen zum Traum. Und mit einem „And the dream goes English translation, p. 158 to the ocean“ landet der Lappen in der Pfütze und die beiden Gegenstände tauchen ein in ihre neue Seins-Bestimmung. Immer mehr Requisiten erhalten neue Bedeutungen, verkörpern „Mit dem Handy in der Peepshow“ betitelte die abstrakte Begriffe, bilden zusammen neue Paarungen und Literaturwissenschaftlerin Gertrud Lehnert prägnant ihre Bedeutungen und türmen sich auf dem Tisch in der Bühnenmitte Abhandlung über die zunehmende Verschränkung des zu abstrakten Wort-Ding-Neuschöpfungen. Das Spiel entfaltet öffentlichen und des privaten Lebens in unserer einen enormen Sog, reißt sein Publikum mit und bringt die Dinge Gesellschaft. zum Sprechen. Wissen wird umarrangiert, Schubladen im Nachdem ich Jasna und Clément kennenlernte, erinnerte Denken neu belegt. Die Welt wird eine Andere, buchstäblich im mich der Name ihrer Company gleich an dieses Buch - Handumdrehen. Das tat sie übrigens weltweit auf Gastspielen. public in private eben. Mehr als zehn Jahre später blicke ich Hier wie dort schienen die Besucher*innen beschwingt und dann auf diese erste persönliche Assoziation zurück. Zugegeben, doch nachdenklich mit der Frage „wie kann ich meinem starren weder ein Handy noch eine Peepshow sind mir in den Denken entkommen? Wie die Welt wieder anders sehen?“ den Arbeiten von Clément Layes und Jasna L. Vinovrški je Saal nach der Vorstellung zu verlassen. begegnet. Aber einen Sachverhalt haben die Monografie Es ist diese Frage, die als Movens für mich hinter den Arbeiten von Gertrud Lehnert und die vielen Choreografien von von Public in Private steckt. Es ist diese Art, das Gegebene nicht Public in Private dann doch gemein: sie erzählen von als Unumstößliches anzusehen, sondern das Potential für (s)eine gegensätzlichen Begriffspaaren, die vielleicht gar nicht so Andersartigkeit freizusetzen. Alltagsgegenstände mutieren hier gegensätzlich sind, es nie waren oder zumindest nicht sein zu eigenständigen Persönlichkeiten, Träume werden zum müssen. Und sie tun es mit einem Augenzwinkern. wahren Leben, lieb gewonnene Routinen laden auf eine Reise Wann immer sich sicher geglaubtes Wissen verflüssigt, durch Zeit und Raum. Es sind Betrachtungen des Lebens und eindeutige Zuordnungen und Platzierungen im Wissens- unserer Gesellschaft. Jede Performance ein Appell und system ins Wanken geraten, wenn die strenge Logik Erinnerung daran, dass es auch anders geht und das Denken frei

Bjoern Frers

ist. Dieses Politische ist hier insofern privat, als dass es im Gewand einer gekonnt eingesetzten Leichtigkeit daherkommt. Jede der künstlerischen Arbeiten ist mit einer Prise Humor und Poesie gewürzt, die den ernsten Kern gekonnt auf der Zunge zergehen lassen. Auch dies ein Gegensatzpaar, das Public in Private zu verbinden weiß – mit dem klaren Ziel, Kunst für alle und nicht nur für die Elite(n) zu machen. Und der Erfolg gibt den beiden Macher*innen recht. Seit 2017 bescheinigt das Land Berlin ihnen ihre Leistung mit einer kontinuierlichen, überjährigen Förderung. Damit gehören Jasna L. Vinovrški und Clément Layes zu einem ausgewählten Kreis derer, die das Land Berlin künstlerisch vertreten. Der Weg dahin war weniger leicht als der Balanceakt des Glases Wasser in „Allege". Für ihre Zukunft wünsche ich Ihnen daher dieselbe Leichtigkeit für die Möglichkeit zur Kunstproduktion, wie sie ihrer Kunst innewohnt, die Kraft auch weiterhin kreativ diese Welt anders zu denken und künftige Mitstreiter*innen wie ihr Publikum für die Projekte zu begeistern.

J a sn a L. Vin ovrški

Next in line was a short string of classes by French choreographer, Kilina Cremona, during our efforts to establish a more solid infrastructure in Zagreb, Croatia and to support more indepth professional dance training and creative process structures for the upcoming generation of contemporary Croatian dance artists.

Mirna Žagar I was thrilled to receive Jasna’s request to write a few words of reflection on her prolific career to date. As an artist working in the Europe of today, she shares the fate of many artists and their practices – a nomadic life, a cross border journeys that exposes one to diverse life experiences which inevitably fuel one’s life. I have followed Jasna’s artistic journey since her times as a student in Zagreb. It was clear early on that her curiosity, her warmth and genuine interest in life and the world around her would soon take her on a path that she would firmly shape her, along with her keen eye for detail. One that may well be influenced by life’s encounters but one that undeniably would contribute to the shaping of a unique artistic voice and fingerprint on not only Croatia’s dance scene but Europe’s. Her life in dance, I believe, was sealed as she was accepted to participate in one of the international exchange projects with French company Group Dunes, organised by Dance Week Festival and produced by the Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance from Zagreb (HIPP). Its main aim was to introduce new ways of producing and new aesthetics. The project rolled out both through residencies in Zagreb as well as in Marseille, and definitely left an impression on all the Croatian artist who participated in the project along with Jasna. Nearly all of them pursued careers in dance and movement theatre and are active contributors to today’s European contemporary dance and movement community.

Jasna was among the first Croatian “bred” dance artists that travelled abroad in pursuit of knowledge and opportunity as Croatia battled its demons arising from the disintegration of Yugoslavia. She was very excited to be accepted to the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany. It was Germany that embraced her and nurtured her interest in dance, though she never severed ties with the Croatian dance community, notably through the continued avenue of Dance Week Festival which has endeavored through its history to sustain connections between the expat dance artists and the motherland. As a result, Jasna has been able to maintain a steady presence in the Croatian dance scene, returning to feature her works produced by mostly the German State, although one has to applaud the Ministry of Culture of Croatia for being relatively open to support some of her work as well. Of recent, the Croatian younger generations are able to benefit from her knowledge and experience as she guest teaches at the Zagreb Dance Academy. Jasna’s artistic expression changed, understandably, as the years went by. I would say that her early works had a serious consideration of some very serious themes; it was as if a deep seated need was pushing her to assert the knowledge gained through her studies at such reputable institutions, and having danced with acclaimed choreographers. Personally, I always wondered where did that fascination with the world, and curiosity and playful inquiries of her earlier forays into dance hide and will they emerge. It is not that the works were not gaining the attention of international producers, and her solo work “Which Club?” was awarded several times; I just feared that she was loosing her very own voice (perhaps?). When I invited her to join the pan European project Migrant Bodies which partnered with two Canadian dance or-ganizations (Circuit Est in Montreal,

and The Dance Centre in Vancouver) as a Croatian artistic presence I did not hesitate in the choice; she was my immediate and first choice. I knew that this will not only benefit the project, but I felt that this would present a new, different challenge and over a longer period of time offer Jasna an opportunity to research further, and dare I say open up and find herself again (not that she was ever lost!). The subject matter as it coincided was aligned quite well not only with Jasna’s life experience but also with her then most recent academic accomplishments. I remember quite vividly a moment of doubt that emerged in Vancouver when Jasna was going off topic, and was concerned that the theme of migration, having deeply experienced this herself and having studied it extensively, deserved a very serious consideration yet she could not hold back on the humour and irony of the many situations that she had witnessed and experienced as a migrant herself. My response to her was that humour is a serious business. Just jump into it, as clearly it is calling you! The result was the delightful work "Staying Alive", which caught the attention of international programmers by storm at the Aerowaves platform, and which then toured extensively. I was thrilled to once again see her perform. She owned the stage and was at one with the matter, and she captured the attention of audiences wherever she went. Her work was clearly communicative in a way I had never witnessed before. This was her: confident in owning the moment, her story, her art without doubt and with such compassion and empathy. And yes, there was humour. Then followed "Lady Justice", another of her constructs that question social and political structures, our individual roles and the ways we judge each other. Of course this work too evolves through a playful construct though also in a provoking manner, which engages the audiences and asks them to make decisions as the work unfolds.

I often wondered, observing from afar the work of Clément and then of Jasna, weather she was perhaps trying too hard to be seen as distinct, as different, as if afraid that otherwise she may be left in the shadow of her creative and life partner. And as we see today it was a matter of life, artistic growth and understanding one’s path. All of their joint dreams, as well as individual pursuits are coming together most wondrously through their company Public in Private where the two artists are until today developing separate choreographic signatures, but in the close artistic support to each other. As in life, so in art.

Estetika u zagrljaju etike English translation, p. 159

Ivana Slunjski

Autorskom razvoju Jasne L. Vinovrški svjedočila sam zapravo otpočetka, od „Mittelwelle AFC-a" i „Which Cluba?" nadalje, prateći programe zagrebačkih festivala Tjedan suvremenoga plesa i Platforma HR u kojima je redovito sudjelovala. Ne mogu reći da su mi te prve predstave pobudile afinitet prema utkanim koreografskim zamislima ili da se odmah dogodilo neko prepoznavanje. Naprotiv, često su me potiho uznemiravale i tjerale na razmišljanje što me u njima i zašto smeta. Što se ipak činilo boljim nego nemati stava jer bi to značilo da me scenska tvorba ni na koji način ne dotiče. A zaokupljale su me i više nego što bih htjela. Isprva se sve činilo odveć očitim, bjelodanim, kao da su predstave nudile malo toga što bi intrigiralo i pozivalo na pomnije zagrebanje građe. Jer sve je već bilo prezentno samo po sebi, jasno postavljeno, usredotočeno na jedan tematski sklop, s rijetkim digresijama koje bi uslojile primarnu liniju, precizno izvedeno. Rijetko što je bilo prepušteno slučaju, gotovo sam priželjkivala kakvu mrlju, grešku, ispad iz sistema koji bi pomutio tu jasnoću. Istodobno su scenske situacije temeljene na apsurdnosti životnih postupcima hipertrofiranja i oneobičavanja prerastale njihovu apsurdnost, simplificirajući ih i zasjenjujući važnost problema na koji se upućivalo.

Kao što, primjerice, humorno potenciranje poteškoća s dobivanjem putnih isprava za tranzistor u „Which Clubu?" udaljava od problematike nevidljivosti imigranata i svih obilježenih pojedinaca koji bez potrebnih dokumenata za državne sustave ne postoje, što je jedno od pitanja kojima se Jasna Vinovrški opetovano vraća. Malo-pomalo njezino mi je stvaranje postalo sinonimom za spoj plesnoga i kazališnog medija, jednostavnost forme, s upotrebom govora, objekata i ironije kao stalnim elementima. I signalom vlastite rezignacije. Onda je na „Staying Alive" odjednom kliknulo. Sve je počelo sjedati na svoje mjesto: pojedinačni mehanizam podupirala je mreža koreografskih strategija i scenskoga znakovlja izgrađivana godinama, preplećući ga s prethodnim ostvarenjima i rastvarajući kompleksnu i potentnu poetiku.

Izvedbenost

Pojednostavnjivanje scenskog mehanizma u odnosu na izvedbenu formu i prostorne odnose te usmjeravanje na nekoliko koreografskih odrednica koje sve pridonose linearnomu tijeku bilo čitave predstave bilo manjih, odijeljenih segmenata koji potom, tematski uokvireni, tvore konačnu izvedbenu cjelinu omogućuje autorici da se posveti radu na izvedbi, odnosno izvođenju i izvedbenosti samoj. Pritom naglašavam da se koncentriram na pred-stave koje sam tijekom godina gledala, osim spomenutih još na „Modal Verbs", „Lady Justice" i „Ansambl", koje izvedbenosti pristupaju iz utjelovljena karaktera i in-scenirane situacije, dakle iz unutarnje perspektive reprezentacijskog sklopa. Dvije predstave koje nisam uspjela vidjeti, „Under Construction" i „Live to Tape, a Still Moving Talkshow", promišljaju izvedbenost naspram medija izvedbe, propitujući prisutnost, „proizvodnju prisutnosti” (H. U. Gumbrecht) te opseg i značenje uloge, odnosno utjelovljena karaktera. Odmičući se od tradiranih konvencija kazališta, plesačko ili, točnije, plešuće tijelo izvodi i kad je posrijedi utjelovljeni karakter, ono ne pripovijeda, ne simulira, ne pretpostavlja radnju i ne zamjenjuje ju znakom, već obavlja stvarni fizički rad. Rad na izvedbi podrazumijeva i rad na izabranoj taktici ili načinima izvođenja tijekom izvedbenoga događanja, iskušavanje i fino moduliranje vlastitih izvođačkih snaga i kapaciteta ovisno o konkretnome izvedbenom

kontekstu. Osim pozornosti na izvedbenu građu i bivanje na sceni, osobito kad se naoko ništa ne događa, što zahtijeva izvođačevu koncentraciju na učinke njegove prisutnosti na građu i gledatelje, uključujući osvještavanje i kontroliranje stanja, emocija, sugestivnosti, intencionalnosti i dr., tu je i rad izvedbe kao samosvojnoga entiteta koji izmiče izvođačevu upravljanju i emanira značenja u sprezi s izvedbenim kontekstom, s čime izvođač također mora balansirati. To je izraženije u predstavama koje uključuju moment publike, kao „Staying Alive" i „Lady Justice", bilo u podupiranju izvođačice u izvršenju zadatka kinestetičkom empatijom ili prihvaćanju uloge u razmještanju rekvizita u izvedbenome prostoru, dok se u drugima, 'Modalnim glagolima' primjerice, u kojima se također prihvaća da publika prepoznaje opća mjesta, više polaže na impostiranje glasa, stav tijela prema sadržaju koji se iznosi, sinergiju govora i pokreta i druge srodne elemente.

Jezik

Jezični te komplementarni gestovni i mimički kodovi u fokusu su Jasne L. Vinovrški podjednako kao i pokret. S aspekta plesa kao naglašeno tjelesne umjetnosti upotreba jezika i govora kao njegova pojedinačnog očitovanja nije disparatna, štoviše proizvodnja govora može se poimati kao ukidanje granica tijela i širenje u prostor. Riječ ostvarena govornim aparatom vibrira prostorom zauzimajući ga. Istodobno, otkidajući se od tijela, riječ ne pripada ni tjelesnome ni izvanjskome prostoru, već se raspodjeljuje među njima. Time na vidjelo izlazi govornik kao medijator i riječ kao objekt koji se ostvaruje u prostoru poput pokreta, čime već ulazi u polje koreografskoga istraživanja. Zbog navedenoga rascjepa govor se pokazuje kao drugost jezika – koji kao društveno ovjeren sustav na nesvjesnoj razini djeluje u oblikovanju značenja – jer proizvodnja govora uključuje i razne jezične omaške, zapletanja jezika, zastajkivanja, krive naglasne ostvaraje i drugo, narušavajući semantiku riječi, rečenica i nadrečeničnih cjelina. Semantičko polje u nekome prirodnom jeziku bitno određuje način povezivanja

pojedinih gramatičkih vrsta, što znači da remećenjem poretka riječi i drugim razlaganjem strukture dolazi do stanovite desemantizacije ilii resemantizacije. Osim što se tako razložene jedinice mogu zvučno ili vizualno komponirati, kao pandan kompoziciji pokreta, desemantizacija slabi odnose moći, time i inherentnu ideologijsku represiju, koje jezik postvaruje s obzirom na to da uvjetuje našu predodžbu o svijetu. Među ovdje razmatranim predstavama bavljenje jezičnim strukturama najeksplicitnije je u „Modalnim glagolima", u kojima ti glagoli kao suznačni glagoli izražavaju mogućnost ili nužnost i takvi izravno impliciraju odnose moći. Ti odnosi nisu u svakome jeziku jednako uređeni jer se pojedini jezik i pripadna kultura međusobno zrcale, jedno drugo determinirajući i proizvodeći. Imajući u vidu da se stoga i značenja modalnih glagola mijenjanju od jezika do jezika, autorica analizira kako se te razlike u rasponu jezika koje govori odražavaju na tjelesnost i izvedbenost. Promjene su vidljive već u načinima na koji izgovaranje distinktivnih glasova u jezicima utječe na mimiku lica. Također, mijenjanjem zvučnoga okoliša povećava se broj mogućnosti kojima autorica i izvođačica može odgovoriti na određenu izvedbenu situaciju, dopuštajući joj poigravanje konotacijama, jezičnim metaforama i društvenokomunikacijskim stereotipima, poetiziranje jezika, eksperimentiranje zvučnom razinom jezika, izražavanje karaktera pojedinog jezika kvalitetom pokreta itd. U pogledu odnosa moći uporaba više jezika u izvedbi intrigira i zbog činjenice da se u plesnome svijetu, a i globalno engleski pretpostavlja kao lingua franca, zbog čega dolazi do ne uvijek poželjne unifikacije. „Staying Alive" autorica također realizira višejezično, odnosno na engleskome i na jeziku države u kojoj izvodi, a to, sugerirajući iskustvo barijera u sporazumijevanju koje je svatko iskusio, može biti podlogom za humorne obrate. Zahvaljujući većem broju izvođača, u „Ansamblu" pak iskaču dva postupka. Najprije se prizorom usmenoga samopredstavljanja prekida motrenje vizualnoga tijeka te se tako pruženim informacijama utječe na opažanje daljnjih zbivanja i njihovo razumijevanje. I potom se, reverzno, prizorom preklapanja glasova i međusobna nadjačavanja ili govorenja uglas, riječi pobijaju i demitizira njima uspostavljen univerzum.

Solo vs. kolektiv

Forma sola od ranoga modernog plesa povezuje se s emancipacijom pokreta kao uvjeta samosvojne plesne umjetnosti te emancipacijom tijela od raznih stega, pa i one koreografske. Drugim riječima, solo se ponajprije uspostavio kao forma u kojoj autor sam koreografira i izvodi svoj ples kao eksternalizirano pojedinačno iskustvo. Nastavljajući se na to, solo je i danas najčešći način predstavljanja vlastitih umjetničkih nastojanja. Ne treba zaboraviti ni da je solo najjeftiniji produkt koji kola umjetničkim tržištem, no taj rukavac ovoga puta ostavljam po strani. Želim reći da nije ništa neobično da je Jasna L. Vinovrški odmaknuvši se od izvođenja djela drugih koreografa i u traženju autorskoga glasa pribjegla solo formi, no u tome se izdvaja činjenicom da je nakon početnoga „Mittelwelle AFC-a" na njegovu svojevrsnom nastavku, solu „Which Club?" surađivala s plesačicom Unitom Gay Galiluyo, da bi se tek nakon više projekata koje koreografski potpisuje vratila propitivanju i izvođenju sola, najprije u „Modalnim glagolima", potom u „Staying Alive" i '„Lady Justice". Iz toga se može zaključiti da Jasna L. Vinovrški otpočetka ne pristaje na fetišiziranje koreografskoga stvaranja kao invencije jedinstvena i neponovljiva talenta te da solo poima kao rad i oblik koji nastaju uvijek u nekoj relaciji, prema suradnicima, prema društvenome kontekstu, prema publici. Posljednja tri sola stoga je moguće promatrati u smislu zgušnjavanja estetskih odrednica i osobita autorskog zrenja. Posebno se to zanimljivim čini jer nakon njih slijedi predstava „Ansambl" u kojoj autorica s plesačima ansambla, Studija za suvremeni ples pojedinca sučeljava kolektivu, i na razini umjetničkoga stvaranja i na razini organizacije. Oslanjajući se na individualizam s kapitalističkom potkom te socijalističke zasade tomu nasuprot, postavlja se pitanje koji je oblik zajedništva moguć u ansamblu u kojem pojedinac ne zastupa samo svoj glas, ali ni kolektivno apstraktne interese, odnosno u čijem se djelovanju istodobno prelama i pojedinačni i kolektivni identitet.

Koji status ima takvo djelovanje u odnosu na solo kao formu poduprtu filozofijom individualizma, a koji je u temelju razvoja suvremenoplesne umjetnosti? Možemo li govoriti o kolektivnome subjektivitetu i kako se on ostvaruje? Kako se pritom raspodjeljuje odgovornost za umjetnički čin, za bilo što drugo? Od pozornosti prema nemoći pojedinca pred birokratskim sustavom i obespravljenosti migranata, preko upućivanja na obrasce i strukture koje podupiru mehanizme moći do kolaborativnih i kuratorskih projekata usmjerenih na jačanje spona berlinske scene, u umjetničkome djelovanju Jasne Vinovrški iznimno je naglašen socijalni aspekt. Dok revidiram i preslagujem ove posljednje retke dan nakon snažna potresa u Zagrebu, u vrijeme brojnih restrikcija u pokušaju sprečavanja širenja koronavirusa, čime je umjetnost trenutačno svedena na razmjenu digitalnih zapisa u virtualnome svijetu, njezina senzibiliziranost prema društvenoj problematici i okrenutost zajednici poprimaju novu dimenziju. Hoće li umjetnost ovakva kakvu poznajemo opstati, hoće li se društveni sustavi pred silom prirode mijenjati prema boljim i ravnopravnijim prije svega ovisi o snazi i neposredne i šire ljudske zajednice. Jasno je da će tu etika imati prednost pred estetikom, ali nedvojbeno je da umjetnost izgrađuje duh zajednice. Crpe iz zajednički oblikovane stvarnosti i prevrednovano vraća društvu.

...before Public in Private

For over 1 2 years, Jasna has created works that delve into diverse social, political and artistic territories. Croatian dance researcher Ivana Slunjski takes us through Jasna’s trajectory, from her early solos to her latest collaborations.

Mittelwelle AFC

Unita Gay Galiluyo

J asna L. Vinovrški

2003, Dock 11, Berlin

2005/2006 Premiere. 2005, International Solo Dance Festival, Stuttgart

Which Club?

I.S.:

Along your path of artistic realisation, one of the issues you found important was identity. In your early works, as you examined identity, the issue of bureaucracy appeared.

J.L.V.:

The battle with German bureaucracy during my first working years has made an impact on me both as a person and as an artist. I felt a strong need to express my bitterness and draw the attention to the often very unfair treatment of the artists by the bureaucratic system, which in a way reflects the general status of artists in today’s society. This is how my first solo on the issue, "Mittelwelle AFC" came about, followed shortly after by my next solo work "Which Club?", which I choreographed for the Filipino dancer Unita Gay Galiluyo. Given her origin, Unita was often categorised as a sex worker. Often when she was on tour, she was singled out at the border and subjected to long and painful interrogations. After saying she works as a contemporary dancer, the most frequent question asked by the immigration officers was: in which club do you dance? That became our creative framework for the piece. The solo was very successful and we toured across all of Europe with it, garnering several awards. This reinstated my wish to dedicate myself to choreographic work fully, as up until then I was primarily working as a performer for other choreographers. In my next piece, "Temporary Exposition / Catch 22", I focused on bureaucratic mechanisms. In it I focus on an error deliberately installed in the system with the aim of stalling the process. A residence permit requires a work permit and a work permit cannot be obtained without a residence permit - the famous Catch 22. There are many other examples of the Catch 22 phenomenon, and they appear on a regular basis in many countries all over the world. The bureaucratic mechanism counts on people’s exhaustion and quitting. The starting point was an A4 format piece of paper which is a primary tool in bureaucracy. The first part, the "Temporary Exposition" performance, starts without audience, by

placing A4 papers onto the floor, piece by piece, until an A4 format is filled up on a large scale (10 m x 12 m). From above, it looks like one giant A4 paper, which gradually dissolves once we start to walk on it. This process takes one hour and requires extreme patience, precision and concentration. Over time, both performers and audience become immersed in a deep meditative state. This work is to me a reflection on the issue of our legal existence and on all the lives that are or are not considered as valid and verified by a piece of paper. Placing papers on the floor can be understood both as a construction of our legal personhood and as an act of resistance against the bureaucratic system. During the entire performance, performance artist Julie Jaffrennou stands on a tall pillar made of stacked "A4" paper with her hair tied to a structure on the ceiling, her body suspended between the ceiling and the paper. Her durational act of standing in a space “in between” refers to the hopelessness and despair one can endure when captured for years in the Catch 22 situation. Which is the case of many immigrants today…Placing papers on the floor as a separate durational installation/performance, which I titled later "A4", was something I performed years later, for the first time as part of "Lange Nacht der Bibliotheken" during my MA studies in choreography in 2011. The audience was watching from the fifth floor as my colleagues and I were setting up the papers on the first floor. Once we filled in the big A4 square, we started to walk on it, and we also invited the audience to join us in the dissolving process of the A4 white surface. Whereas "Temporary Exposition" focused more on the impossibility of battling the bureaucratic mechanism, "A4" had an optimistic turn, as people were given agency to change the situation. In "Which Club?" there was also a strong call for change, but more through direct confrontation.

Temporary Exposition / Catch 22

Unita Gay Galiluyo, Deborah Hofstetter, Julie Jaffrennou, Clément Layes, Tommy Noonan, Marco Volta, Jasna L. Vinovrški

May 2007, Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany

Alexandre Achour, Milla Koistininen, Zeina Hanna, Jasna L. Vinovrški

2011, Volkswagen Universtitätsbibliothek; "Lange Nacht der Bibliotheken "

J.L.V.: In "A4", I would say I took more of a buddhist approach to the problem. It’s by making changes within ourselves and our minds that we can gain the power to overcome the most difficult situations in life. However, the bureaucratic apparatus is radical because it creates a situation in which no one is responsible for anything. If one happens to find oneself in the position of a victim, there is no one to blame. The bureaucratic system simply doesn’t see a human being behind the paper. Making a change in a system that grinds everything it gets hold of is something to consider seriously. That is why it is important to me both as a person and as an artist not to empower the systems, but to take things into my own hands. To take responsibility, to gain integrity and power over my own life in the face of bureaucracy. This might seem a simple and obvious thing, but when you’re invisible in the country where you live, because you don’t possess the required papers, you don’t feel like you can take a stand on anything. After 25 years in Germany, I was granted German citizenship, just this year, and for the first time I feel that because I can vote, I can really stand for my rights and for the rights of others.

I.S.: Your entire process of becoming an independent artist is a reflection of your thematic preoccupations, the performative apparatus of your works, and the essential principles of your company.

J.L.V.: Absolutely. The bureaucracy issues made me realise

the importance of public versus private. Even the very name of the company points to how the public affects the private person. Hannah Arendt’s work "Vita Activa" supported my thoughts about bureaucratic structures and the public and private person. This served as an ideological background with which we laid the foundations of the company.

CONTEXTS

Under Construction March 2009, E-Werk Freiburg, Germany

I.S.: In "Under Construction" and 'Live to Tape, a

Still Moving Talk Show' you examine the performance from its medium, presentation vs. representation, and the choreographic paradigm shifts from the body to conversation.

J.L.V.: In these two pieces I question my own

profession. The entire process of "Under Construction" and my relocation to Berlin were imbued with the idea of establishing my own company with Clément. I gained confidence that I could survive as an independent artist, I left the domain of state theatres and I returned to my roots – freelance. The fact that I could even start pursuing methods of creative strategies in choreography, relieved of the immense burden of a daily struggle with bureaucracy, meant to me a deeper opening to the medium of contemporary dance. In "Under Construction" I recapitulate my artistic past, by discovering influences from the dance field that marked me significantly as a performer and a choreographer. I created a ten minute choreography derived from ten choreographies which made an impression on me. Then I recorded it and I sent it as a DVD to one performer, instructing him/her to learn the choreography on his/her own. We only met later on, directly on stage, in the presence of the audience. That’s when I would see them perform the short choreography for the first time. After the dancer had performed the choreography, we sit down at a table and discuss their process of learning it, without having any information about it. Eventually I reveal the background of each part of the dance. Then the performer re-performs the choreography, for the second time. This time the performer and the audience experience the same dance in a very different way due to the revealing process that took place during the conversation, which we called a talk show. I navigated this talk by posing questions, so I took on the role of an interviewer. After many performances, for which each time a

new performer was invited, I perfected the performing of myself as a private person. After that challenging experience, I decided to drop acting on stage as a private person, and I turned fully to the building of fictive characters. This is much more fun for me, and it gives me a healthy distance from the medium of dance. In "Under Construction", the choreography’s focus is more on the conversation than on movement. As the conversation or the so-called “talk show” moment evolves, Clément is building constructions out of A4 paper in the background and leaves it as a stage set-up. So here the motive of A4 paper returns, which evokes the idea of the construction of identity, in this case an artistic identity. Every performance is performed by another performer, so it is a one-time experience. We were questioning the differences between performance art and choreography. We reference Francis Alÿs, who stresses that the crucial thing in performance art is that it is a singular experience that can not be repeated. However today performance art is already strongly familiar with re-enactment, which brings the idea of performance art as a one-time experience into question. Today in performance art, documentation plays an extremely important role. Recordings no longer serve as only archival or promoting material, but often function as the artwork itself. We took this idea as a guideline for the process of Under Construction. We documented the entire process in various ways and afterwards we set up the documentation material as an exhibition that the audience could visit before the performance. The space was divided into two parts; one was a white box – the exhibition space, and the other a black box – the performance space. The audience thus experienced two different contexts that demanded a shifting of behavioural patterns and a different kind of attention.

Olivia Maridjan Koop, Unita Gay Galiluyo

Live to Tape, a Still Moving Talk Show

Isabel Lewis

Martin Klausen

May/June 2012; Zagreb Dance Center, Uferstudios Berlin

J.L.V. : My interest in playing with the shifting of

contexts led me to my next work "Live to Tape, a Still Moving Talk Show". The dance context here relocates to the TV context of a live talk show. The audience and the performers are situated in a set-up very similar to a TV talk show, but without the presence of cameras. Changing shots, zooming, slow motion, speeding up and the like – all this is performed only by the performers through their facial expressions, movements and speech. The talk show is often interrupted when the performers exit the TV mode of performing – the conversation – to embrace the gestures and to enter a silent, movement mode, in which hand gestures and facial expressions become the dominant choreographic material. The main focus of the research occupying me ever since "Under Construction" is the issue of liveness: what is it that makes performance a live experience and why does presence have to be a crucial element for its realisation? Together with my collaborators we were researching the notions of choreography and performance art. In the research process we were dealing with elements such as interpretation, repetition, re-enactment and immediacy. We spent quite some time thinking about and discussing immediacy, trying to find ways to include it into the choreographic process.

One consequence of this research was that at a certain moment in the piece there was a "live" discussion happening between me and one performer. The discussion was happening at the table, not so far from the audience, in a more or less relaxed manner. We knew what we would talk about, and what would be the leading points of the conversation, but no more than that. During the talk we could act spontaneously, which also involved an element of risk as we could not predict in which direction the conversation would flow. Often we would allow ourselves to address the audience, and the audience was free to intervene at any time. This created a very special atmosphere in the theatre, where the performers gradually got quite familiar with the audience and vice versa, but without giving up each other’s roles. In comparison to everything that came before or happened after in the show, this talk gave a strong sensation of the here and now, of the real, of the one-time experience, of the unrepeatable, of liveness.

SOLO WORKS

Modal Verbs

May 2015; Uferstudios

moram, trebam, smijem, mogu, hoću, i želim

I must, I should, I may, I can, I will, and I want

ich muss, ich soll, ich darf, ich kann, ich will, und ich möchte

Über Sprache und Mehrsprachigkeit bei „Modal Verbs“

Katja von der Ropp

English translation, p. 162 Modalverben sind sehr seltsame Wörter. Für sich genommen haben sie wenig Inhalt, entfalten aber im Gebrauch eine sehr tiefgreifende Wirkung. So liegen Welten zwischen den Aussagen „ich muss diesen Text lesen“, „ich darf diesen Text lesen“ und „ich will diesen Text lesen“. Auch wenn wir ihnen wenig Beachtung schenken, definieren die Modalverben das Feld der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des handelnden Subjekts, bestimmen dessen Grad der Selbstbestimmung und Verantwortung. Für die Performance „Modal Verbs“ untersuchten wir, wie sich die verschiedenen Modalitäten auf unsere Körperlichkeit, Bewegungen und Haltungen auswirken. Ausgangspunkt dafür, dies anhand mehrerer Sprachen zu tun, nämlich Deutsch, Englisch und Kroatisch, war insbesondere Jasnas mehrsprachige Lebensrealität, die sie sehr für Sprache als solches sensibilisiert. Ich begleitete die Produktion als Dramaturgin, und da ich darüber hinaus auch als Übersetzerin tätig bin, teile ich Jasnas Interesse an Mehrsprachigkeit und Wirkungsweisen von Sprache. Bedeutungen und Funktionen der Modalverben unterscheiden sich in den verschiedenen Sprachen zum Teil oder verschieben sich leicht. Wir entschieden uns für die deutschen Modalverben müssen, sollen, dürfen, können, wollen und möchten als Basis und definierten deren Wirkungsweisen genauer. Bei dieser Bestimmung und insbesondere bei der Übertragung der Modalverben in die anderen Sprachen

stand nicht die linguistische Korrektheit im Vordergrund, sondern die hinter den Worten liegenden Mechanismen und Funktion-sweisen. Jasna beschäftigte sich auf einer sehr philoso-phischen Ebene mit den Verben und verknüpfte sie dann mit konkreten Handlungen. Für möchten diskutierten wir z. B. Deleuze. Inspiriert von seinem „Abécédaire“ bestimmten wir etwas möchten dann als wünschen und begehren, das sich nicht auf ein einzelnes Objekt richtet, sondern auf den Kontext, das Ensemble, in dem sich dieses Objekt befindet. Für die Umsetzung entschied sich Jasna in diesem Teil mit der Materialität von Stoff zu arbeiten und mit dem Prozess des Verund Enthüllens. Angelehnt an die methodische Strenge, mit der sich die Grammatik umgibt, teilte Jasna die Choreographie in Kapitel ein: Gerahmt von einem Prolog und einem Epilog nimmt sie in der Rolle einer strengen Lehrerin die Modalverben in der 1. Person Singular der Reihe nach durch. Dieser formale und klare Aufbau gibt den Rahmen für das Spiel mit der Sprache selbst und deren Verhältnis zu Körper und Bewegung. Auch ein Großteils des Humors der Performance ergibt sich durch die Reibung und Auseinandersetzung mit dieser behaupteten Strenge. Auch wenn das Thema von „Modal Verbs“ die Sprache ist, liegt der Schwerpunkt des Bühnengeschehens nicht auf gesprochenem Text, sondern auf einer Verbildlichung dessen, was Sprache macht. Die drei Sprachen Deutsch, Englisch und Kroatisch haben eine weitgehend gleichberechtigte Rolle. Alle Zuschauenden sollten der Performance inhaltlich folgen können, wenn sie zumindest einer der Sprachen mächtig sind.

J asna L. Vinovrški

Nicht jede Theaterform bzw. jedes Genre ist gleich gut für eine gleichberechtigte Verwendung mehrerer Sprachen geeignet – wenn nicht mit Übertiteln oder ähnlichem gearbeitet werden soll. Bei „Modal Verbs“ werden das Gesagte bzw. die Sprachen selbst Gegenstand der Untersuchung, weil es ja eben um die Bedeutung und Funktion der Modalverben geht. Dabei zeigen sich verschiedene Konnotationen der Modalverben in den unterschiedlichen Sprachen und die unterschiedlichen Klänge und Sprachmelodien treten deutlich zutage. Am Beispiel des Verbes wollen scheint auf humorvoller Ebene auch das Thema der Übersetzung bzw. Nichtübersetzbarkeit als solches auf. „Ich will“ lässt sich eben nicht direkt mit „I will“ übersetzen – wir entschieden uns aber nach langer Diskussion dazu, es so zu setzen. Dadurch öffnet sich eine weitere Bedeutungsebene des Wortes und es klingt auch die Umsetzung dessen mit an, das gewollt wird: „Ich will das tun und ich werde das auch tun“. Schwerpunkt der Arbeit sind aber eben keine grammatikalischen Spitzfindigkeiten, wie zum Beispiel auch die Fragen, welche Wörter überhaupt zu den Modalverben gehören und welche nicht, was sich in den verschiedenen Sprachen auch unterscheidet. Es geht um die Modalitäten als solche und deren Vermittlung in verschiedene Sprachen. Insgesamt lebt der Abend von dem, was auf der Bühne geschieht, also von der körperlichen Umsetzung der Implikationen der Modalverben. Der Text benennt hauptsächlich das Verb, worauf sich der jeweilige Teil bezieht. Im Teil zu sollen findet sich ein Beispiel für einen Umgang mit den drei Sprachen, das allen ein Verständnis des Geschehens vermittelt, ohne alles in allen Sprachen zu wiederholen. Sollen, also die Pflichterfüllung von verinnerlichten Gesetzen oder Zielen, findet sich in dieser Szene als eine Form der Selbstertüchtigung. Jasna führt in ihrer Rolle als Lehrerin Gymnastikübungen durch und spricht dazu Zungenbrecher als Sprachübungen.

Da Zungenbrecher per se kaum übersetzbar sind, wählten wir verschiedene in den drei Sprachen aus. Das Prinzip, um das es geht, ist so für jeden schnell klar, auch wenn nicht alle alles zwangsläufig verstehen. Der Frust, etwas nicht zu verstehen, weicht der Lust, sich an den unterschiedlichen Sprachklängen zu erfreuen. Durch die Mehrsprachigkeit der Performance scheint auf, dass die Modalitäten unserer Sprache nicht zwangsläufig so sein müssen, wie sie sind. Diese Erkenntnis sowie überhaupt ein Bewusstsein für die Wirkungsweisen der Modalverben ermöglichen einen neuen Blick auf die eigene Sprache.

"Modal verbs are modes of being through which the Being lives itself " Giorgio Agamben

J asna L. Vinovrški

Staying Alive 2015, Montreal, Vancouver, Vitry sur Seine and Zagreb

J asna L. Vinovrški

I.S.: From "Which Club?" to "Lady Justice", your works

seem to share the red thread of disempowerment, and address the individual within the bureaucratic system, immigrants, and art itself. You embody human fragility and at the same time you remind us how we all have the power to stand up for ourselves. "Staying Alive" also relies on the combination of restrictions and permissions, the regulation of rights, obligations and liberties, which are additionally brought under stress by the migrant crisis.

J.L.V. : Mirna Žagar knows my work from the very

beginning and she invited me to take part in "Migrant Bodies" because she thought it coincided with the subject matter they wanted to touch on. "Migrant Bodies" was an EU project (2007–2013), but Canada was also involved as an example of a state treating immigrants well. It was during our project that their laws pertaining to migrant issues deteriorated, which led me to explore the subject of rights, law and regulations regarding human movement in my dance piece, both today and in the past. One of the curators who launched "Migrant Bodies" wanted to approach the project as an activist cultural worker. I was intrigued, but it also felt demanding to take responsibility, as an artist, and face such a complex political subject matter. When we were kickstarting the project, the migration issue wasn’t yet that current in the media and it related mostly to Italy. As the project lasted for a year within that time the migration situation in Europe escalated to the point that it became the most current subject in the entire world. For this reason, I decided to address in the performance why I’m dealing with such a highly political theme. It was important for me that the audience was aware that this was a commissioned work, as it clearly shows the role of the curators in the making of art today.

The context in which the work grew was no longer only described in the programme booklet, it was present on the stage. I wasn’t certain if the curators would accept it easily, but finally they did, since the piece is imbued with humour. They even supported this solo when it was selected for Aerowaves. "Staying Alive" was not the only work created during the "Migrant Bodies" project. Five choreographers, from Italy, France, Croatia and two from Canada, were invited to respond to this situation and this generated five solo pieces. I was thinking about how to approach such a challenging and significant subject, and since I was focusing on developing a character, like in the previous solos, I decided to create a role of someone hailing from the legal system, a lawyer, an attorney or even a diplomat, someone representing migration laws, and enter the dance context from that point of view. I applied choreography as a tool that constrains, encloses, determines and controls the movement trajectories just like the migration laws are controlling the paths of migrants. That is why, throughout performance, I carry an electronic tablet on top of my head and therefore I cannot move so much. Also the choreography I created is a line dance, which is very limited in movement and in space. At the end of the piece the culmination of the constraints reach their peak when I stand on the pile of books and while keeping my balance, shaking and trembling, I try to read the text in four different languages. Working with constraints is something that Clément uses often in his works, and I discovered its power and creative force for the first time in "Staying Alive".

„Die Tradition der Unterdrückten belehrt uns darüber, dass der 'Ausnahmezustand', in dem wir leben, die Regel ist. Wir müssen zu einem Begriff der Geschichte kommen, der dem entspricht." "The tradition ofthe oppressed teaches us thatthe ‘state ofemergency’ in which we live is not exception butthe rule. We mustattain a conception ofhistorythatis in keeping with this insight. " Walter Benjamin 55

J asna L. Vinovrški

Lady Justice 2016/2017; Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Circuit – Est Montréal

I.S.: After these two

dance works, you make a comeback in a representational framework, performing a role, i.e. a character, in particular in "Staying Alive" and "Lady Justice". In these works you seem to be pushing the exploration of the very field of choreography and performing strategies to the background.

J.L.V.:

Well, the exploration of performing strategies brought me back to the question of representation. From this moment on I consciously decided to work with representational modes in my work, through constructing roles and characters. In "Under Construction", where I had to perform myself multiple times, I started to question the idea of the authentic body on stage, that doesn’t play but “act”, and I came to the conclusion that there is no such thing. Even when one tries not to act and to “be oneself” on stage, one is still playing a role. As in real life, one is also playing not only one role, but multiple roles. Judith Butler is one of the masters in writing and thinking about performativity, in life, which to me confirms my conclusion above. Also the question of presence was something that I became sceptical of. Why this obsession of the here and now in contemporary dance works? Presence has totally overshadowed representation, and I found it was time for me to get back to it. It’s important to note that this was a period when conceptual dance had already been present for two decades, and many performances did satisfy my understanding, but at the same time they left me cold and often uninterested. I was very much interested in choreographers like Vera Mantero and Ann Live Young, or companies like Forced Entertainment and Needcompany. These people bravely used theatricality, representation, humour and other elements of the theatre apparatus that opposed the stream of conceptual dance. Their works were encouraging me to continue exploring the field of choreography in that direction. I don’t want to say that there were not interesting artists for me in conceptual dance. Xavier Le Roy, for example, is an artist from whom I learned a lot. Aside from having a strong concept, his works are also filled with great humour and poetics. He was a strong influence for me, especially when it comes to the creation of choreographic structures. I love the clarity and simplicity of the structures in his work. I started with "Modal Verbs" as a means to implement similar strategies by using minimalism, transparency and clarity in my compositional structures. To me, working with transparent structures allows an audience to follow the unfolding of the work, and to make visible all the layers that one piece contains. Like looking at a piece of cloth up close, and recognising all the different threads that are making this cloth a unique piece. Another clear, continued line of research in my explorations, is working choreographically with text. The duet-shaped dialogue in "Under construction" and "Live to Tape" is very much based on gestures and in the following three solos "Modal Verbs", "Staying Alive" and "Lady Justice", I choreographed text through treating the words and their pronunciation as choreographic material.

It is quite a challenge to work with words choreographically, as words carry meanings that resonate on more levels than movement, which is abstract. In "Staying Alive" I don’t treat text as an object of theatrical expression; instead I am interested in how to approach it from a choreographic point of view, how to build a rhythmical composition. In 'Modal Verbs' my working materials are speech and language grammar. "Modal Verbs" came about after reading and listening to the lecturers of Giorgio Agamben, whose work I appreciate a lot, and some of his readings were also very important for "Staying Alive". He spoke about modal verbs as empty words, that always seek to be complemented by other verbs, yet they are exceptionally powerful and they model our bodies through our behavioural patterns, and our way of living. "Lady Justice" on the other hand has a choreographic structure that follows a rhythm and the composition of a song. At the same time it is constructed as a dialogue between the accusation and defence within a court case. Coming back to representation, the context for "Lady Justice" is a trial in court. The representation of character is here at the service of the entire event, because each person is represented by a judicial professional. I question representation in life (namely in court), which is a highly political question, through playing the role of Lady Justice in the performance. However, I announce at the beginning of the work, that Lady Justice asked me to represent her, and only from that moment do I start playing the role of Lady Justice. In a way, with this work I legitimise myself as an artist working with representation, as for me it has strong creative and political potential.

GROUP PIECES

Anđela Bugarija, Ema Crnic,́ Eva Kocić, Gendis Putri Kartini

10 Tasks

Marta Habulin, Ši mun Stankov, Una Štalcar Furač

I.S. :

After three solos, a collaboration with students on "10 Tasks" and with dancers of the Studio Contemporary Dance Company on "Ensemble" followed. What is it that you identify as your method and how do you transfer it to others? What do you deem relevant to underline?

J.L.V. : When I received the invitation from the

Department of Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb to convey the principles of my work to students of contemporary dance, I knew I was going to work in the first place with future performers. For that reason I designed the entire workshop around the concept of performativity, i.e. performing strategies. In my view, this is equally, if not even more important as training in different dance techniques, which today still, unfortunately, occupies the largest part of training programmes for professional dancers. First I introduced my choreographic tools through structured improvisation techniques, where body movement is equally important as voice and spoken word. As far as physical work is concerned, I almost always ask performers and students to work with existing vocabularies which don’t belong to them necessarily, but are nevertheless part of their so-called inner repository of everything they saw, experienced or embodied. Hence in the research process the dancers first delve into their memory or sometimes engage in research through books, movies and the internet, and extract the elements that made an impact on them. This becomes the basic building material for the choreography to come. I always insist on a dialogue between speech and movement, i.e. on preparing the body to act through speech and gesture. To that aim I developed a specially targeted training based on the continuum technique, in which working with voice is crucial. The training is designed to prepare the performers to utilise their voice and speech while simultaneously moving.

The training includes certain elements, such as pronunciation, breathing and warming up the speech apparatus. The aim is to make the articulation of words and the clarity of the voice present at all times and allow it to support the physical movement. This technique is specific for dance and performing artists but actors, singers and vocal artists can also benefit from it. "10 Tasks" was intended for students and focused on what we pursued during the workshop. Therefore, it had no ambition whatsoever to become a choreographic piece. Still, the structure arising from this work, which was in a way typical of my choreographies, served as a basis for the "Ensemble" piece, made somewhat later with professional performers. Generally speaking, I always try to maintain a level of transparency regarding the creative process, as I think that it anyhow manifests itself in the performance in one way or the other. When I work with more people, I am interested in seeing the inner universe of dancers; what interests them, what do their bodies remember, what is foreign to them, what habits define them? While in dialogue with them, I slowly embark on the making and accumulating of choreographic material. Moving on to the choreography’s structure, I always first examine what kind of structure the material suggests that could support it well. Dancers’ feedback is extremely important to me; that is how I see how decisions made from my external point of view function internally. Sometimes I make mistakes, sometimes the choreographic material doesn’t support the structure, but at least I can see what kind of friction it engenders.

I.S. : How do you collaborate with dancers on the

elaboration of a choreographic concept?

J.L.V. :

As I already mentioned, I first try to reach their inner world. I give tasks in which the dancers can explore their memory and offer an array of movements, speech or other performative elements. My work is then focused on helping the dancers develop the skill of mastering these elements and creating parameters to support them in this mastering process. I very rarely work with set material. I prefer setting up parameters that serve as guidelines for the performers. How they deal with the choreographic material within these parameters is quite free. That way they don’t lose their agency, during the process or during the performance. Essential for performing is improvisation that is based on inner repositories, which the spectator can also clearly recognise, since movements, as well as general expressions, are specific to each individual performer. For me it is important that the performers on stage can take full responsibility for the material they perform. In my works, performativity is often one of the strongholds of the performance. The set-up is mainly minimal, and I’m trying to clear the choreographic structure of all the superfluous and unimportant elements so as not to lose the focus on the performers’ performativity. The minimalist set up also makes the choreographic structure, as well as all the choreographic layers through which the performers travel during the performance, visible.

I.S. : I find it interesting that in "Temporary Exposition / Catch

22" the individual opposes bureaucratic mechanisms, in which collectivity is exposed as negative, whereas in Ensemble you examine collectivity as handed down by the socialist regime, where a high value is placed on collective action and collective creation.

J.L.V. : In "Temporary Exposition", I see the bureaucratic

system as an apparatus in which collectivity serves the bureaucratic machinery and operates in the interest of the State. In "Ensemble", I’m dealing with a very different notion of collectivity. Here, a group of artists works together not only to make the ensemble function, but also in the interest of each individual working in the ensemble. There are constant discussions among the members of the ensemble, before any decision is taken. In Zagreb there are not many ensembles left in contemporary dance, and it seems to have become almost an archaic form. But I find it very valuable thing that it still exist, cause its resisting the capitalist modes of producing art. A return to such artistic structures is in a way a return to the beginnings of modern dance in the 20th century, since all the currents at the time emerged from collectives or groups, among which the individual names we know and praise today as pioneers established. In Berlin I truly felt a strong individualisation of artists, whereby many artists get enclosed in their own aesthetics and cultivate relationships with art institutions rather than with their art community. This is something that is also supported very much by the art market, that looks for singular names, out of which it can easily create value. In our most recent collaborations with Public in Private, we ask ourselves the question how we could open up to the collective without losing individuality, without compromising ourselves, and how to, within a collective, continue to follow one’s ideas and goals.

Ansambl

Branko Banković, Koraljka Begović, Ema Crnić, Dina Ekštajn, Nastasja Štefanić, Martina Tomić, Ana Vnučec

J.L.V. : We started a company in which we

create individually and collectivity is realised through constant feedback; we evolve as artists who are on a similar path but in constant exchange. This exchange follows individual development and is visible in the company structure.

This interview took place in Zagreb on the 4th ofFebruary 2020.

May 2018, Platforma HR; Histrionski dom, Zagreb, Croatia

Darko Dragičević, Cécile Bally, Jasna L. Vinovrški

Healers

November 2020, Tanzfabrik Berlin

"HEALERS" addresses our relationship with our surroundings, specifically how we deal with the spaces we live and work in. Three experts research the space we are in and its elusive characteristics, discussing them in a slightly comical but serious way. They even talk with the space, give it a non-descript healing session and elaborate on its historical background. It is not the experts, but it is the space that gets the attention and is considered of the same importance as a living organism. The dramaturgy and way of performing invites the audience to establish a relation with the space beyond the mere fact that it is there and the belief it has no impact or affect on us. It is an artistic gesture that calls upon the desire for different visions and imaginations of the world we live in.

During the finalization process of this publication, "HEALERS" also reached its culmination and had its premiere shortly before the second lockdown in Germany due to the COVID 1 9 pandemic. This production is the second co-production between Public in Private and Studio Contemporary Dance Company from Zagreb. Initially, two different teams of “healers”, from Berlin and from Zagreb, would work together as a group on stage. Due to the corona crisis, the collaboration couldn't take place as planned and the two teams had to perform separately. However, the work was still created and developed across both teams. The first draft of the piece was made in 201 9 in close collaboration with Darko Dragičević during the event series "Flutgraben performances #1 ".

Branko Banković, Martina Tomić, Ana Vnučec

COLLABORATIONS

ORATIONS

Christina Ciupke, Jasna L. Vinovrški

Now and Then

February 2018, “Open spaces”; Tanzfabrik, Berlin

I.S.:

What does it mean to you to share the performative space with another artist? In "Now and Then", what was the impact you and Christina Ciupke made on each other? And how did your individual engagement change by coexisting on the stage?

J.L.V.:

Before "Now and Then", I wasn’t particularly interested in collaborations in which two choreographers create a piece together. Perhaps because I feel I don’t have enough control over the process. When I work alone, relations occur between myself and the work. And in collaboration there is a third instance, myself, the work and the third person, which makes things all the more complex, but also open. Collaboration is something I have always found very interesting during the creative process, but the moment final decisions have to be made, the collaborative method might become rather tiresome for me. At least, that was my experience before my collaboration with Christina Ciupke, who taught me this could be different. Unlike me, Christina creates exclusively collaboratively and has extensive experience in that field. The way she listens, discusses, considers and navigates different dynamics during the collaborative creation process was a very rich experience for me and I learned a lot from her. However, it is important to explain how this collaboration actually came about. When I was working as a dramaturge on Uri Turkenich’s "I Love My Dancers", who was exploring the politics within the work process of Pina Bausch, Christina was working on the project "Undo, Redo and Repeat", which also focused on dance history. We often met and discussed our separate processes and the dance history topics that occupied us. Here we planted the first seeds of our future collaboration. A year later Christina invited me to make a project together based on our conversations. We decided to focus on the moment in history when contemporary dance was born. It was in the early 20th century, during an extremely tense period: in almost all spheres of human society the foundations of contemporary society, as we know it today, were being laid. We kicked off our research with the Monte Verità community, which gathered many artists, philosophers, writers, film directors, photographers, as well as dancers and choreographers. A new outlook on life evolved and it didn’t live only in theory, but rather found its implementation in daily life. Apart from immersing into social history, we decided to start from our own histories, our very first projects. We chose two dance pieces from our past that share a strong common link – working with white paper. Christina opted for her work "Zeitränder" in which she worked with a large square-shaped piece of paper, and I chose the installation of A4 paper from "Temporary Exposition". In "Now and Then", paper acts as a surface upon which our conversations about that moment in history when modern dance emerged, unfolds.

While we are working with paper, a recording of our conversation about a group photo on Monte Verità mountain from the early 20th century is simultaneously played. The entire process was extremely rich and it engendered a very meditative, minimalist piece, which sparked a desire for other, new collaborations. After "Now and Then", Christina invited me and another choreographer, Ayşe Orhon, to make a trio. Each of us then invited another set of associates, namely people we work with most frequently, and that is how the idea of Blind Date came about. Each of us six, Ayşe Orhon, Clément Layes, Igor Dobričić, Litó Walkeyis, Christina Ciupke and myself, met in couples to spend an entire day together, which meant there were 30 blind dates in total. The point was to not know what kind of material a meeting might bring. "Blind Date" consisted of fragments from every encounter. The material we used was mostly textual, which is something I’m familiar with, and most of us from the group were inclined to make choreographic work with text. During the performance, the light came from outside and simulated the full moon, which meant that the audience could only see the contours of our bodies. The focus was on listening to the text, which we composed directly and which was led by prearranged parameters. This was yet another exceptionally rich process for me and, I believe, for my collaborators as well, who greatly contributed to their maturity and experience. With the creation and performance of "Blind Date", I fully comprehended the deeper meaning of collective creative work.

An excerpt from the interview from the 4th ofFebruary 2020 in Zagreb

Blind Date

Ayşe Orhon, Litó Walkey, Christina Ciupke, Jasna L. Vinovrški, Igor Dobričić, Clément Layes

November 2019, "Open Spaces Herbst", Tanzfabrik Berlin

My Collaboration with Jasna Now and Then Christina Ciupke Jasna made an exception for me. Usually, she would not collaborate, she told me when I asked her if she would like to develop a project together. But she would love to work with me. She wouldn't really know what it is to collaborate and what it means, she said. Some time later we met again and immersed ourselves in a journey into the past. We wanted to go back to 1900, to the time when independent dance began to develop, and delve into the history of the people who broke away from the conventions of that time. At the beginning we tried to imagine the past around 1900 based on the known historical fragments and what seemed to be missing. We sat at a table with a huge paper in front of us, covered with our notes, details and questions about the lives of the people we wanted to get closer to. Isadora was an inspiration for us, as was Einstein’s wife, Ida Hoffmann and Loie Fuller and the man who was an artist and who had never worked in his life. There was also another man in an old photograph who was wearing remarkable sandals that somehow seemed to be self-made. He was surrounded by a group of men and women, some naked, others not. Every day we met and described that old photograph, an image that seemed to capture the spirit of the time. Every day the history of the past took a different turn in our descriptions. Deeper layers and details emerged. Jasna became intrigued by the woman in the middle of the picture, who was crouching down and seemed different from the others in the group.

She looked at us directly with an expression of wonder. Every day we had fictional conversations with these people from the past. We were re-inventing their daily lives between the gaps of the pieces transmitted by history. For a moment we slipped into their everyday reality and mindset. As if we would be them we asked each other questions like: Are you passionate? Are you rich? Do you regret anything? Do you believe in democracy? What do you think the future will bring? Do you trust the authorities? Do you like to dance? This is how we slowly got to know each other and how we found out, how to collaborate. It was through the lives of others and through the fragile, delicate traces and threads that we eventually connected our own past and present to the days back then. We gently and carefully tuned into each other.

I look at Jasna andrepeat what she has just done so that she can see it andshe shows me what she saw when I showedher what I saw andI see the memory ofwhat she saw andI pick up the memory to pass it on so that it is not lost andshe tries to remember what she didnot want to forget andpass it on so that I can experience it andremember it so that it is not lost. I repeat it, changing andremembering what changedbefore it was rememberedandseen andrememberedandwhat she remembers andrememberedandrememberedanddidnot remember.

Our Collaboration within the Project BlindDate To expand our collaboration, we met with Ayse Orhon and agreed to ask further artists to join us. Each of us three would invite a close collaborator. We intended to explore whether the intimacy of an exchange between two people could be transferred to a number of six people. Jasna invited Clément Layes, her long-term collaborator, Ayşe Orhon invited Litó Walkey, and I invited Igor Dobricić. The six of us met each other in a series of 25 one-to-one encounters over a period of several months. The fragmented memories of these encounters became the substance that formed "Blind Date". It was a mind-opening experience - we gave each other equal space and with the greatest possible attention and care we listened and tuned in to one another - while maintaining and developing our individual qualities and voices. The experiences, knowledge, approaches and practices we brought to these encounters were polyphonic, idiosyncratic, differentiated and increasingly multilayered. It was such a special and beautiful experience to work together and to be with these six people. It exceeded all expectations. I wish it could continue.

Clém en t La yes

The Logic of the Fantastic Jonas Rutgeerts One way to describe the work of Clément Layes is to define it as logics. Clément Layes is above all a logician and his performances are all logical systems. Layes develops specific sets of procedures or conventions that fuel his creations and his pieces can be understood as elaborate explorations of these mechanisms and their consequences. Layes, however, is not a typical logician. His logics do not resemble the traditional systems that define our contemporary ways of thinking. They do not try to develop overarching, all-encompassing structures that attempt to capture and control everything, and that reduce singular events to instantiations of a limited set of general rules, or categories. Instead, they are aimed at the creation and exploration of aberrant movements, singular gestures that escape the systemic procedures of everyday life. His systems both produce and trace the particular parcourse of – human and non-human things, focusing on the moment of deviance, the leakages, the points where things no longer behave as expected.

In line with Alfred Jarry’s ‘pataphysics’, Layes’ work could be understood as the development of a ‘patalogics’. The French theatre maker defined his ‘pataphysics’ as “the science of imaginary solutions”, or “the science of the particular”. Instead of examining general laws, his science examined “the laws governing exceptions”. Similarly, Layes’ logical systems can be understood as the production of systems that result in the creation and exploration of ‘particular’ or ‘imaginary’ movements. In the short story “The Book of Sand“ (1975), Argentinian writer and thinker Jorge Luis Borges tells the tale of a very special book. The pages of this book can only be read a single time. Once one turns the page, one will never find it again. Moreover, it is not only impossible to read pages twice, but also to locate the first or last page of the book. Several pages always lie between the cover and the actual page. The reason for this resides in the fact that there are constantly new pages emerging, growing out of the front and back covers. Instead of following the traditional linear structure of a book, with a clear beginning, middle and end, “The Book of Sand“, thus, seems to be in a state of constant transformation, with pages that always change and new pages that continuously emerge in the folds of the old ones. This is also the reason why it is called “The Book of Sand“: "neither the book nor the sand has any beginning or end”. The structure of “The Book of Sand“ comes close to the organisation of reality. Rather than following a clear path, a linear structure that can be organized into defined (sub)chapters, reality grows from the middle. It should be understood in terms of infinite change, a process of continuous transformation in which new planes are constantly popping up, slipping through the cracks of the old ones. This makes reality into a system that is impossible to control. Just like (the book of) sand, it always escapes our grasp. Every time we think we understand the situation, new elements emerge.

This, however, does not mean that we should just give up thinking about reality. Instead, it implies that we should reframe our thinking, shifting the focus from understanding to creating. We should not try to reduce the world to a simple set of rules, but produce new worlds, new planes of reality that cannot be accounted for in terms of general axioms or universal principles. Layes’ works bear resemblance to the operational logic of Borges’ “Book of Sand“. In some of his works, such as “Things that surrounds us“ and “Dreamed apparatus“, this resemblance is clearly palpable. In these pieces, sand takes the leading role, being used to create spherical figures in Things that surrounds us or as the fleeting material for the choreographic score of “Dreamed apparatus“. In both pieces sand functions as an agent of transformation, constantly enabling the development of new landscapes that completely transform the stage. Even when this direct link is absent, however, there is still a clear resonance with Borges’ short story. In his works with objects, such as “Allege“ and “Title“, Layes is constantly developing frames that allow the things to exercise their “thing-power”, thus creating new unexpected relations between objects or between objects and subjects and allowing for new constellations to emerge. Similarly, Layes’ constant experiments with mechanisms of appearance/disappearance and repetition can be understood as sustained attempts to destabilize the dominant linear ways of reading the world. Instead of conflating the different parts into one smooth narrative, his works expose, enlarge and play with the intervals or gaps that emerge in between the different parts, showing the potential that resides in the betwixt and between. In doing so, he draws attention to the proverbial new ‘pages’ that sprout up from the cracks of our everyday life In conclusion, we could say that Layes is a logician who celebrates the capacity of the human mind to rise above the utilitarian; who does not attempt to master the universe through knowledge, but speculates on the development of new

universes. His logics are an ode to the ludic joys of useless knowledge; a dedication to the ‘patalogical’ systems that create new parallel worlds, rather than trying to define or judge the one at hand.

« C'est peut-être là le secret : faire exister, non pas juger. » Gilles Deleuze

When Things Do Not (Just) Do What One Intends with Them...

„Some people want to run things, other things want to run. “1

Martina Ruhsam

About Clément Layes' Choreographic Cycle of Things The sheer mass of things produced and discarded in ever shorter cycles in times of planned obsolescence leads to a total devaluation of objects. In fact, smartphones, tablets, notebooks and other kinds of technological gadgets, as well as humble things like tables, chairs, plastic cups etc. choreograph us as much as we choreograph them. They influence our everyday life, our ways of thinking and behaving, our movements in space by proposing specific pathways and established modes of action. By means of their forms, arrangements, conventionalised meanings and functions, everyday objects co-determine the parameters of specific social courses of action and routines. Choreographer Clément Layes foregrounds the reciprocity between active humans and nonhumans with some sort of agency in many of his artistic performances. By constantly replacing and resignifying objects on stage, Layes and his collaborators expose the performativity of things and point out how they influence our lines of thought, our imagination and hence our behaviour. In "Allege" and "To allège" Layes staged the movement of thinking as a sort of material endeavour linked to the materiality of things.

For "Der grüne Stuhl", he investigated the complex relationship between the materiality of everyday objects and their names. This research was carried on and led to the performance "Things that surround us". With 'dreamed apparatus' and "TITLE", Layes completed his choreographic cycle of things. A glass, a glass, a glass, a glass... On the one hand, uttering the names of things can serve as calling them forth. On the other hand, every item and constellation of things triggers specific associations. In "Things that surround us", every modification or manipulation of an object seems to call for a new thing. In an interview1 , Clément Layes explained that the collocation of things was connected with the discovery of relations between them: “What we were looking for is an object that is calling for another object. The chair, for example, calls for a table. The table calls for a bottle. The bottle calls for a glass. The glass calls for... There are chains like this. But there are also ruptures in the chain. […] Different sets or chains of objects imply different situations. And there is a kind of climactic situation that we never reach, which would be the guy sitting at the table, with the bottle next to him, ready to drink. In our imagination he has his legs on the table. This would be the final image that is intended but it is never achieved.”

In "Things that surround us", the performers are permanently establishing compilations of objects, but their constructions constantly collapse. Objects swing out of balance, things fall to pieces and they seem to resist the attempts of the performers to reassemble them in yet another way. Time and again their intention to organize the objects in a specific way results in their disarrangement. It is as if the objects are leading a life of their own, as if they have emancipated themselves from the script that is inscribed into them – their functionality. The performers’ efforts to control the objects and bring them into a stable arrangement (and to thereby create a final image that would eventually fix what these things signify), fail on every occasion. And the showcasing of the failure of the performers, despite their efforts, brings an almost clownlike humour to the stage. The associations uttered by the performers orbit around the objects and their meanings start to oscillate, they become unstable. Meanwhile the materiality of the objects apparently influences, if not triggers, specific actions and associations on the side of the performers. Layes succeeds in staging language, actions and objects in their permanent interconnectedness. According to quantum physicist and philosopher Karen Barad, the semiotic and the material are always entangled in complex intra-actions 2. Sometimes multiple levels of meaning are revealed in the most humble daily objects, other times the meanings of these objects are depleted in actions without a goal, in infinite loops or reiterations. For example, Layes embraces the endless task of drawing a circle with grains of sand while this very circle is constantly erased by someone else – a kind of Sisyphean task. In such scenes, Layes displays activities or work devoid of any result or product. The extended and flattened space of time that emerges from these processual choreographies is characterized by wasted, non-teleological time. Boris Groys wrote about time-based contemporary art: “[...] it thematizes the non-productive, wasted, non-historical, excessive time — a suspended time, ‘stehende Zeit’, to use a

Heideggerian notion. It captures and demonstrates activities that take place in time, but do not lead to the creation of any definite product.”3 As an example he mentions the animation Song for Lupita (1998) by Francis Alÿs. “In this work”, he writes, “we find an activity with no beginning and no end, no definite result or product: a woman pouring water from one vessel to another, and then back. We are confronted with a pure and repetitive ritual of wasting time—a secular ritual beyond any claim of magical power, beyond any religious tradition or cultural convention.” There is a moment in "Things that surround us" when it is indeed difficult to say who is choreographing whom: the performers the objects or the objects the performers? The performers are continuously confronted with the recalcitrance of things that time after time defy their plans and are not wrapped up in their functions. Hence, the performance calls into question the assumption that agency is exclusively located on the side of the performers. The instability of the objects on stage pertains to their materiality as well as to their semiotic existence. The English denotation “bucket” becomes “Beckett” in its verbal reiterations, the chair leg breaks down, the sheet of paper slips to the floor, the broom falls off the broomhandle and the red feather refuses to fly into the bag – even if the performers try to make it do so. The material recalcitrance of the objects reminds us that things and materials do not necessarily conform to the cultural, social and linguistic constructions and projects of human actors but often appear, as described by Bruno Latour, first of all as troublemakers or disruptive elements. Regarding both humans and non-humans, Latour has stated that actors define themselves first of all as obstacles, as scandals, as those who disrupt suppression and override domination, those who interrupt closure and the constitution of the collective. 4 As things are not involved as stable objects but rather as elements of a material structure that has a certain autonomy, "Things that surround us" proposes to conceive of (theories of) action and movement detached from the ideas of mastery, governance and control.

The performance proposes an understanding of choreography as an art of listening and activation rather than as an art of disciplining. Linked to this artistic proposal is the apprehension of a distributed agency. If agency is distributed among humans and non-humans, it is never the individual that acts, as Latour (referring to François Jullien) has emphasized: “I never act; I am always slightly surprised by what I do. That which acts through me is also surprised by what I do, by the chance to mutate, to change and to bifurcate, the chance that I and the circumstances surrounding me offer to that which has been invited, recovered, welcomed.”5 Layes invents and creates situations that enable activity that springs from the things themselves and that emphasises their fragility and intractability. Even if the objects are well-prepared (one chair leg is longer than the other one, the bottle has a hole in its bottom and so on) and act in the way they do precisely because they are not conventional things, it is crucial that the scenes are choreographed in such a way that allows for these things to act or to oppose the intentions of the performers. With his performances, Clément Layes has created systems in which things are in a staged state of uncontrollability. Of course it is a subject that is responsible for their staging – however, the objects are involved in such a way that they can potentially co-determine the course of the performance and so that they have concrete effects on other (non-)human performers. The performers, who designate the world of objects, who (re-)arrange the latter, and who discard things, are related to and attracted by the non-human things surrounding them in complex ways. They are labourers, collectors, constructors, those who dispose of waste and those who appropriate stuff. What "Things that surround us" thematizes are questions of political ecology. It is not the human body, the mobility of the subject and its identity that are the focus of Layes' choreographic cycle of things, rather it is the interrelation of subjects and the world that surrounds them. At the heart of this investigation there is the question how human beings form and shape their environment and how the latter forms human beings.

1 Clément Layes in an unpublished interview wih Martina Ruhsam in the frame of her PHD research on 8.3. 2015 in Berlin. 2 Cf. Barad, Karen:Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2007, p. 147 Compared to an interaction, an intra-action is the encounter of two entities or things that makes these entities/things emerge as such in the first place. Barad assumes that the relata do not exist prior to their relations but are engendered by their encounter. 3 Boris Groys: Comrades of Time, in: Going Public, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2010, p. 90. 4 Cf. Latour, Bruno: Politics of Nature. How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy, Cambridge/ Massachusetts/London: Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 81. 5 Latour, Bruno: Pandora´s Hope. Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Cambridge/ Massachusetts/London: Harvard University Press, 1999, p. 281. .

C.L.:

The "cycle of things" is a series of performances dealing with objects and man-made things. I made these works between 2010 and 2015. Through them I inquire various ways to relate to objects on stage, trying to understand in the performance how things affect us and what things are. I see these works mostly as tragi-comedy, as on the one side they present the funny and absurd aspects of our lives in a man-made world, full of things; and at the same time they address the overwhelming weight we carry as soon as we slow down to feel.

Cycle of Th i n g s

2010

Allege

C.L.: Clément Layes, Vincent Weber

“Allege“ is the first performance I made. It is a solo and was premiered in January 2010 in Berlin. It has since been performed in many countries in Europe and North America, first only by me and then later by my friend Vincent Weber. In this first performance, I wanted to create a meaningful gesture in response to what was happening in the year of its making: the financial crises and the unsuccessful conference in Copenhagen on climate change. I was searching for ways to reopen a horizon of hope. After years of work I had developed a technique of balancing objects, and the performance took the form of a challenge, a multi-tasking activity in which I was to construct the relationship between objects while balancing a glass of water on my head. It is also a system of signs, as in the piece objects carry conceptual meaning and are moved around and organized according to this meaning, which is only later explained. The text in the second part of the performance gives an insight into the activity of the first part of the performance, and this metaphorical game in which things become concepts is brought to another level and in itself becomes a sign.

It is an old man that could be a child that could be a woman. Inserting things into each other, pouring and removing and putting each other into things, mops and toys. Creating bubbles of meaningless worlds, these are very important. It is a monkey that could be a dog that could be a snail. Directing the space, creating still lives, making sense of everything that still looks arbitrary, forcing meaning into its order. It looks random, but that’s about it. What I’m writing about is not what it is. It is close to what we think it is, it is not an art for the future nor a culture for now. It is five hundred quotes disguised in a few plastic bottles. It is not a geometric demonstration. It is not about Clément Layes, it is not a rock concert although that would be great. It started in 2002 and it is not finished yet: it was initially a quartet, then a trio in 2004, then it turned into a duo, then it went back to being a trio in 2007, and now it’s a solo. We lost people along the way, it was too difficult, only I stayed, still trying. On average we lost less that one person a year, so I think I have at least one year to go, then I’ll see, maybe I’ll leave the things alone.

C.L.:

"To allege" is the second performance I made with Public in Private. We had lots of press coverage, but very little time and money. "To allege" was about renaming the world, pretending the things are other, and the order can be altered. The five players present and play with already renamed objects and later baptise one of the chairs of the theatre. At the end we drink champaign with the audience. I had the fantasy that "To allege" could be placed on top of the table featured in "Allege", and that all the performances I would do later could enter into each other in various ways like that.

Ruth Waldeyer, Felix M. Ott, Vidal Bini, Clément Layes, Jasna L. Vinovrški

2011

To alleg e

A community of meaning, of associations, of objects, a community of in between, a desired community, an aimless community, a semantic community, an attempt to create a community in the world as it is in a theatre.

Clément Layes, Felix Marchand

2012

Der grüne Stuhl

"Der grüne Stuhl" is the third performance I made with Pubic in Private. It was a piece on the side, a very simple gesture that would add to the presentation of "To allege" an exploration of the nature of things, through as many ways as possible, leading of course to the impossibility to reach their essence.

C.L.:

According to Plato, for any given object there is a name, a definition, a visual form and a sensation. But what would it mean if we had no name for it, no definition, no visual form, no sensation? This appears to me, after these two years of research, as a pure object of representation, as the act of representing without any object to represent. Emptiness. There is no meaning, not even an abstraction that would say ”it is what it is”, a desperately empty thing. But it is at the same time free of responsibility, like the liberal market: it has nothing to stand for other than itself.

I had planned ”Der grüne Stuhl” as a way to re-open the knowledge we have of things – particularly of a green chair. And I wanted to do this in the physical and associative ways we developed in the last performance ”To allege”. The most important and intriguing question was: what is this?

In looking for ways to address the known as if it was unknown, we finally chose two ways: a direct live experience and a mediated one. By using a very common everyday object I dreamed that the enormousness of its references would allow it to drift away and start signifying something else on top of its references. But it never happens, the thing remains itself, desperately common. Or, rather, beautifully common.

”The words imply the absence of things, as well as desire implies the absence of its object... One and the other end up at a dead end: one of communication and one of happiness” . Tzvetan Todorov, ” Poétique de la Prose ” 97

Things That Surround Us 2012

C.L.:

Felix Marchand, Ante Pavić, Vincent Weber

” Things that surround us ” is the fourth performance I made with Public in Private. Finally we had funding and could dream “big”, at least in terms of stage design. It is a performance for three performers and many objects. It specifically addresses cycles of things, the circulation of objects in our society, from their creation to their use and consumption, to when they are destroyed and become trash. It was created from the strong sense of absurdity that accompanies these cycles, as well as from the hope that a certain form of consciousness could arise from realising the vanity of these loops. From large factories to cities, to oceans and continents made of plastic, things turn around and pass through us, defining us in as much as we define them.

C.L.:

I felt that only the meditative aspect of art could counterbalance these otherwise absurd economic activities going on all over the world. It had two parts: firstly, I was curious to make visible the ways in which things that surround us are not only used by us, but also how they make us move, how they choreograph us. I therefore constructed a per-formance in which the choreography came from the objects. In the second part things break apart and end in a large circle of dust which we cultivate into various shapes.

Each day, we are surrounded by objects – carrying a particular meaning, offering certain functions. We move through the course of everyday objects, passing through them in an unaware but nonetheless extremely rehearsed choreography of everyday life.

” Things that surround us ” deals with the relationship between human beings and their environment. How do we shape our environment and vice versa: how are we governed by the objects that surround us? Three performers enter an unusual thing-world on stage and turn daily life into an adventurous experience.

101

The background of our daily lives is the night and the dreams inhabiting it. In deep sleep beautiful figures appear, or as we wake up, the recurrence of unwanted images and dreams let us wonder about their meaning or their reasons for existing. By designing a ‘stage’ for dreaming, ” Dreamed apparatus ” looks into this nocturnal occurrence, and our wandering into these memories. Using simple gestures, the performers draft, evoke and play with the dream and their eventual keys. Their actions create a texture in which language, movement and images are no longer trapped in a logic based on meaning, but are able to interchange, collide and entangle. Together with the operators they construct an apparatus wherein the unknown, the free-floating and the non-rational become the protagonists.

” Dreamed apparatus ” is a performance installation. It can be watched for a few minutes or one hour, it's a very simple gesture: one performer draws on a black stage with a stick full of white sand. The line that he draws is erased by another performer. Therefore, in between those two performers, the line evolves and changes shape endlessly. It follows the words of Henry Michaux about Klee's work: ” to let a line dream ” . On stage the line is somehow dreaming.

2014

Dreamed Apparatus 103

Vincent Weber, Felix Marchand, Justin Palermo, Joséphine Evrard

105

Title 2015

C.L.:

”TITLE” is the last work in the ”cycle of things” series. The musician Steve Heather is also performing on stage. I wanted to make visible both the relationship and the gap between language and things, by giving titles to situations comprised of absurd or complex constructions, by trying to name what happens and by showing the endless failure of language. It's a comedy of things. Objects become more and more independent from human agency. They have their own momentum, they draw a life of their own. The titles are like an everchanging collection of situations and of constructions. Together they exist in an unbalanced moment in which one tries to find stability in an ever-changing environment.

107

In ”TITLE”, Clément Layes exposes the parallel actions of thinking and doing. With typical humour, Layes explores the complex interrelation and discrepancies between the assemblage of things and the web of associations we build around them and stages the ”war and peace” between them. In doing so, he exposes both the shattering of thought and the spectacular silence of the object.

”We think about love while making coffee, we make imaginary travels while walking down the street. Meanwhile the things are just there, shrouded in an enigmatic silence. We interpret and associate, give things a meaning, but they don't say anything.”

Clément Layes

109

Moving Drum 2016

C.L.: ”Moving Drum” is a short piece, a collaboration with a musician, commissioned by Labor Sonor. It is a sequel to ”TITLE”, as it has the same stage design, just with a drum replacing the objects. I decided to continue working with Steve Heather and made him a proposal: I suggested to make his snare drum move so that the choreography would literally come from the movement of the drum. He would just have to play and follow the drum. We used a complex system of strings to make this happen, and Anthea Caddy, a violoncellist, was pulling the strings to move Steve around.

111

Steve Heather , Anthea Caddy

C.L.:

Following this long research with objects, I realised a very important aspect of the work happens in between things. And this inbetween can be called rhythm.

113

On Rh yth m

Asaf Aharonson, Daniel Almgren Recén, Cécile Bally, Rafal Dziemidok, Ulrike Gabe, Steven Koglin, Calissa Layes, Felix Marchand, Lee Méir, Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, Larisa Navojec, Liselotte Singer, Bahar Temiz, André Uerba, Nir Vidan, Albrecht Walter

2017

The Eternal Return

115

C.L.:

I had the first idea in 2013. We were at a residency at BUDA (Kortrijk, Belgium) for ”Dreamed Apparatus” and we were preparing an event. Many people helped and gave advice. Kevin Decoster, the curator of the cinema program of the art center, was among them. He recommended that we watch a few movies. One of the short movies proposed by Kevin was ”Tango” by Zbigniew Rybczynski. He described it shortly as: “A lot of characters in one room. A classic animated work, all about repetition.” Indeed this movie interested me a lot and I thought immediately it would be great to adapt it to a performance, with all the interesting problems that would arise from transforming a work of video collage into a live art form. At the time I didn’t think I would really do it but four years later I decided to make this work. In the mean time I became very interested in the notion of rhythm, and as I was reading Nietzsche and Dorian Astor, the concept of the eternal return appeard to me: “What if some day or night a demon were to steal into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it you will have to live once again and innumerable times again; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unspeakably small or great in your life must return to you, all in the same succession and sequence - even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!’” The ideas of ”Tango” and the eternal return came together and it made sense to create this work, neither a copy of an original idea, nor a completely new thing. I was interested in the fact that it was also possible to work with an existing idea, and not necessarily produce new ideas for each new work. In the rehearsals, we sought various different ways to repeat our actions, not like machines, but like humans: going through the same track over and over. How to repeat our actions, while keeping their liveliness. As director Peter Brook said long ago, “boredom is the devil”, and repetition easily produces boredom. We were therefore looking at ways to find liveliness within the repetition.

I wanted to create the work in Berlin with a group of 15 professional performers. Then, on tour, eight people from the city of the venues would join seven people from the original cast. We would always have a week to recreate the piece. This process of recreation was also repetitive. We were repeating the creation of the piece. On a larger scale it was also a reaction to the touring situation in contemporary dance, and performance. I had toured a lot in the previous years and I was tired of this way of relating to places; arriving the evening before the show, performing on one or two nights, then going as fast as possible to another place, or back to Berlin, to save money, to save time. There was too little time to really encounter the realities of those places. We would have only a few hours to walk through the city center... I wanted the ”Eternal Return” itself to include an exchange between people from the city and the dancers on tour, so that we spend time in those places and we have a life together. As the piece also speaks of society, it was necessary that the people of the city would bring to the work their special way of being, formed, in part, by their location.

Is one day just like the next? Is life just on repeat? In a confined space suspended in time, Clément Layes brings 15 performers together in a series of short, seemingly quotidian movement sequences, setting the machinery of everyday life into motion. Through a tight choreography of loops, he reveals levity and the many facets in what initially appears to be commonplace. As a result, a playful and yet earnest kaleidoscope emerges, exposing something new with each and every repetition.

”All that is straight lies,‘ the dwarf murmured contemptuously. ‘All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle.” Friedrich Nietzsche 117

2018

Failing can be powerful, beautiful and transformative. In this performance we want to explore these specific characteristics of failing.

Studies for the Emergency Artist

119

C.L.: “The Emergency Artist“ is the second piece in this series of performances on rhythm. From the beginning I knew it was about this moment of emergency we’re all in, and the very moment of rupture. But even more so, it is about the fears, anxieties and discourse of our times relating to this emergency. Underpinning the work is the following question: how can we be artists of the fall/of failure? How can we be Sturzkünstler, able to fall and come back again, champions of falling. I asked Stevie Koglin, a virtuoso in “art du déplacement”, to perform, and we built a special construction for him - a big angle that can be manipulated by technicians, on which Stevie could balance. The piece was also made with two dancers from the dance Cie Studio in Zagreb and three performers/technicians from Berlin. We had a very mechanical and physical score, both in terms of the movement and in terms of the voice. We vocalise mantras from the 1960s revolution. This revolution was a lot about “living now”, but in our time of emergency, this urge to live now has become a manipulative tool to keep people consuming. “Now or never” has become a source of fear and anxiety that is compensated by sweeteners, Nike shoes or smartphones. The tools controlling modern society are not any more the “order” of the police.

The dangers of our lives are not any more the boredom of the highly controlled society of the 1960s, but rather the anxiety coming from these imperatives of success, and the absence of structure and stable ground. Rhythmically the piece adds up, like a construction game; one thing is repeated and the next step is added to it, then a third performer adds to it, meanwhile the first stops and adds something again. This way the piece evolves into a more and more complex situation. Moreover, a climax is reached only to lead to yet another round where the first part is repeated, this time with three more performers or technicians. They manipulate the angle by placing it on a wheel or moving it upside down, hereby making the repetition of the first part even more challenging. The moment of emergency is never reached, but is always there as a phantom possibility: while watching the piece, feelings of suspension and fear arise and this question of “what is going to happen?” This work consists not only of a performance in two acts, but also includes an installation and the exhibition of three videos. Before the show, the audience passes through a maze made of sand in a room next to the theatre and can watch the videos on display. These elements are each a study of emergency through different mediums.

Steven Koglin, Dina Ekštajn, Ana Vnučec, Florencia Martina, Jonas Maria Droste, Ante Pavić

Nobody likes to fail, so it's easy to let our daily life be determined by our fear of failure and our aspiration to win. But now could be the time to face these fears and celebrate failure: with his new performance for six emergency artists, Clément Layes elevates the flip side of success as a counterweight to the pressure to perform in our society. The tragic hero of this performance valiantly confronts the parkour of obstacles, emergency situations and tasks imposed on him by his companions, artfully failing and giving a stage to the beauty of failure. With slapstick physicality, mechanical finesse and the acrobatic inelegance of the protagonists, Layes paints a picture of the moments in life we too often cover up and our existential fear of messing up. “The Emergency Artist“ frames the art of failing with the ease of an existence freed from the shackles of our obsession with security.

121

2019

ONON

ONON looks at the walls we live in and the rules we live by ONON builds an allegory for our time ONON is half human, half mechanical ONON explores the line between the stability of structures and the fragility of movement. ONON cuts movement into fragments ONON seeks to better understand the (inter)dependence between the human body and anonymous systems. ONON is a machine ONON is a mobile labyrinth. In ONON human and non-human agents create a multi-rhythmic performance In ONON things move.

123

C.L.: With “ONON“ I wanted to work with the idea of duration, not necessarily to make a long performance, but to experience duration. To do this, I researched and worked with one team regularly over four years as a means to give time to experience time as it unfolds and to not be working at the fast speed of a one-year production. Throughout these four years, we made seven short pieces, and one for children “ONONON“. The piece uses an apparatus of moving panels, which is very beautiful in itself. You experience time as you watch the pendulum of the panels, moving in various directions, in their own asyncopic way. The performers are moving in this environment and slowly reveal that they speak from a certain future, and how they got there, and became part of a machine: “the story… I would like to tell… few years ago, the machine broke… Only later, the people realised… the consequences of the catastrophe… It stopped, but it continued. ...it was an extraordinary machine… with a spirit of it’s own within the mechanical laws acting through it. Its purpose is still a mystery and the reasons for the machine malfunction remain uncertain.” Unlike with the “Emergency Artist“, where the piece emphasised the present and the urgency of a set of emergencies, “ONON“ seeks to reach out into the future and reopen the experience of time, the long-term and duration.

125

Cécile Bally, Mariana Nobre Vieira, Asaf Aharonson, Nir Vidan

On Light Design Ruth Waldeyer Dear Clement, We met for the first time in September 201 0. We worked on the pieces “ONON “ , “The Emergency Artist“ , “Eternal Return “ , “Title “ , “Dreamed Apparatus“ , “Things That Surround Us“ , “To Allege “ and “Allege “. What comes to mind? Grammar. What I like about your work is that you build a kind of syntax – a system of relations between objects, conventions and material. This system does not necessarily stop with the premiere of a piece, but it continues to exist for as long as you need to explore it. I work with a similar kind of grammar in the lighting, or a similar continuity – the line does not necessarily stop when the piece is done. I follow it until it ends. Or transforms into something else. Or returns elsewhere. When I first started with “Allege “, I did not design the lighting, rather I took over your existing design and system of running the lights. It is not possible for me to disconnect the lights from the way they come to life on stage, in other words, how we work together. Materiality. Time. Conditions. Money. We share a curiosity for different approaches and an enthusiasm for changing them according to our respective needs. And we share an interest in machinery. In “To Allege “ we introduced a persona, the moving light: one of those motorized theatre spotlights, which can tilt, pan, focus, change colour and turn into a strobe. We placed it upside down on wheels and pulled it through the space. Its light beam examined the space as the audience watched it do so.

Apparatus. Movement. Interaction. An at the time high-tech device on a wooden trolley with a rope. With “Things that surround us“ we came closer to finding a direct communication between the lighting and the performers. We delved deeper into exploring low tech moving lights. Or to be precise: lights moving and introducing circles. I was already wondering, when I first started working as a lighting designer, why something as round as a light beam is compressed into something as square as a stage. I learned how to work the lights in theatres from friends, colleagues and technicians I met on tour and never again. (Somebody once whispered into my ear that almost everybody starts out like that). We dropped the square for a couple of years and concentrated on circles. In this piece: three concentric rings of lights producing a circle. During this process I realized that you can't produce a circle out of circles. What emerges is something more like a flower. But thanks to diffusion it blurs into a circle. This circle shrinks and expands and spirals. The light follows the performer, or the shadow. We operated the lights with an analogue joystick taken from old-school computer-game gadgets, later with a touch screen, open source software and an interface. Pure data, VVVV, Lanbox. I remember trying to catch the big movements on stage and translate them into tiny thumb and finger movements up there in the tech booth. Those tiny movements were then magnified on stage. Not always at the right time or hitting the right spot. It´s a game. “Dreamed apparatus “ – a digression from the circle. Colours. We worked on the reflection of light on sand, and continued investigating direct interactions between light, sound and performer. This time with Uli Ertl as sound designer and partner in crime in the interactive machinery. We made switches on the floor which, when stepped on, would trigger a light and a sound jukebox on stage. Lights and sounds could in this way be operated from on stage.

This helped me understand the advantage of the position all the way at the back, behind the audience: you actually get to see wht you create. “Title “ inspires me to reflect on our collaborative process. I always start from the workings of the lights. I hardly ever have an image in mind, of how the lights should look in the end. Our working process includes many talks about collaboration, communication, phenomena, mechanisms, interactions or processes we find interesting. We then split and start realizing our ideas. I research tools, ways of programming and devices. And what did we find for “Title “? Silent movie lights, for which we slowed down the speed of the moving lights until it made the objects on stage move by themselves. A moving light is a light that moves through separate lamps, so one light that follows the other. A chase. Does the expression “chase” come from the idea of lights chasing one another? “Eternal return “ – what comes to mind? Something every person who ever ran shows in their lives knows: that one cue in an hour is much harder than a show with a hundred cues, because you need to stay alert without doing anything for a long while. And then do the right thing at the exact right moment. It reads as a huge change on stage because nothing spectacular happened in the half hour preceding it and it’s your only chance to get something right in this one hour – it´s very emotional. Or maybe I´m a very emotional lighting designer. Here we come back to the circle of lights. Slowly opening for the eternal return. Except for the one moment in the middle when this steady machinery of lights, performers and live sounds breaks into a coloured, dreamy moment accompanied by strings.

For “The Emergency artist“ we created a moving light – again. Before we worked on the piece, we went to the theatre biennale in Venice. We showed four pieces in five days and suddenly I got bored with something very beautiful: lines and shapes in a light grid. After having put so many lamps in slightly different rows with slightly different angles and focus points, I wanted to see them arranged differently. So I built another low-tech moving light, a cluster of cans facing in different directions, which could be pulled up by the performers and swung around. Another dreamy, though dangerously mechanical, moment in an otherwise demure light design. “ONON “ is full of lights and motors, and has a moving stage and moving lights. While working with you I understood that the lights should not disturb the action too much. What does that mean? They should be good. Definitely. But they should also leave space for the performance. The lighting and the performance are not glued to one another. Sometimes the lights can leave the performers and flashdance in space. Or breathe silently. I think this is one of the reasons for our recurring structure of sober, demure, bright and plain lighting. And then there's always something very big which costs a lot of work that just bursts into view for a brief moment. For ONON it’s a long moment – a seventies TV test pattern on a coloured moving panel in a moving light show. It's about defining the relationship between white panels turning up and down and sideways, and corresponding lights, fading, mixing, contrasting, wandering.

What shall we build next?

127

Avec Public in Private

English translation, p. 163

Vincent Weber Il y a quelques années Clément avait l’habitude de pratiquer un jeu collectif consistant à placer un objet au milieu d’un groupe de participants, en vue de lui trouver un nouveau nom – ou un titre - qui fût accepté par le groupe, en suivant des principes d’associations libres. À l’inverse, je me demande maintenant quel est l’objet, l’image, le lieu qui correspondrait pour moi le mieux à ce nom: « public in private ». La première chose qui me vient à l’esprit, c’est le studio de Flutgraben. Il est de plus en plus rare, chez les fabricants de spectacle et hors institutions, qu’un travail s’identifie autant à son lieu de production, pièce après pièce. Le plasticien a un atelier, l’écrivain a un bureau ou un café ou une bibliothèque, mais les chorégraphes et metteurs en scène sont souvent, par la force des choses, en résidence loin de chez eux et de leur quotidien. Le nomadisme a ses avantages, mais il rétrécit aussi la recherche à des périodes déterminées et à des contextes flottants. J’ai toujours admiré la dimension quotidienne, privée, et surtout choisie, du studio de Flutgraben. Mais cela est trop évident pour incarner ce nom « public in private ». Il faut peut-être entrer dans le studio. Là se trouvent les fantômes des anciennes pièces et donc aussi sans doute les fantômes des futures pièces.

Ce sont parfois les mêmes. Je veux dire ces objets et ces bouts d’objets remaniés qui ont toujours été les véritables protagonistes des pièces de Clément. Leur forme, leurs attributs, leurs défauts ont déterminé les heures de répétition. Des objets qui vivent jour après jour dans le studio et que nous visitons. C’est probablement le cœur du travail mené depuis dix ans que d’avoir réussi à élever cette petite tribu d’objets, de leur avoir donné le statut d’une assemblée. Je connais assez bien la plupart d’entre eux. Les accessoires de rangements, les valises et les sacoches, les cartons de stockage défoncés, s’ils n’entrent pas en scène, appartiennent pleinement à cette assemblée. Avec leurs blessures. Me revient le souvenir d’une roue de valise perdue sur un quai de la gare d’Albany, dans l’état de New York, par des températures inférieures à – 20°. Depuis assez longtemps nous faisions rouler l’énorme valise d’accessoires. Mais à partir de cette gare d’Albany, nous la fîmes traîner. Cela se déroula même à la façon d’un numéro de clowns : d’abord la négociation pour savoir qui prenait la valise à l’arrivée en gare, puis la descente du train, Clément faisant rouler la valise devant moi, une roue cédant sous le poids et la vieillesse, et moi condamné à la shooter malencontreusement dans le mouvement de la marche avec une virtuosité tragicomique, envoyant la roue se perdre sous le train. Du reste à notre arrivée à Troy, quelques minutes plus tard, un panneau indiquait l’existence d’une épidémie de méningite sur le campus où nous devions jouer.

La roue doit être quelque part en Amérique et une partie de « public in private » aussi. Je cherche. Il y a quelques mois, revenant dans le studio pour une soirée publique après plusieurs années de relatif éloignement, j’ai vu sous le nouveau gradin un petit bout de bois que je connais bien et pour lequel je ressens une forme de tendresse. Il est enrobé de scotch gris. Il me fait penser à des amis. C’était le petit bout de bois qui se trouvait seul sur scène au début de la pièce « Things that surround us » et sur lequel nous placions la chaise rafistolée, sorte de béquille minimale à partir de laquelle tout l’univers d’objets se mettait en déséquilibre. Je me dis que ce petit bout de bois qui jouait le rôle de « rien » dans le spectacle pourrait être mon « public in private ». Il est assez solide et assez énigmatique pour cela.

129

131

Soci a l Even ts

Vibrant Community Ivana Slunjski

In addition to their creative authorial work, the company’s activities have more recently turned towards the organisation, facilitation and curation of events. This not only contributes to the strengthening of connections among Berlin-based artists and their better mutual understanding of different working methods and practices, but also to the strengthening of a community which can respond to social challenges and articulate demands. They can stand strong together in relation to the issues that they most often encounter as artists. So far they have realised three curatorial projects: ”3AM”, ”Flutgraben Performances” and ”Montag Modus Klimata”. ”3AM” was launched in December 2014, along with Dmitry Paranyushkin, with the intention of testing art processes and sharing them with the audience in an informal atmosphere. This accounted for a much-needed space, as in Berlin there were no venues where artists could try out their work outside the institutional setting and the obligations it imposes. The production of events inevitably requires artists to engage in project funding and production organisation, instead of committing themselves to solely creative and exploratory artistic work.

”3AM” made it possible for artists to present their work in progress or excerpts without the pressure of completing or presenting a finished piece. It enabled artists to test their working processes or works with an audience in different presentation formats. Within the scope of the project 14 events were organised, with over 200 artists participating. The curatorial team invited one or more artists to plan and coordinate each event, hereby seeking to connect the performance scene and the Berlin clubbing scene. In opposing the notion of artistic work as the manufacturing of consumer goods, the focus was on the importance of sharing and joint deliberation between artists and audience. The ”3AM” concept in 2019 gave birth to the project ”Flutgraben Performances”, organised by Sandra Man, Moritz Majce, Clément Layes and Jasna L. Vinovrški. The ”Flutgraben Performances” included a series of four events at which, throughout the year, ten artists presented their work before or after the premiere. They were given the freedom to decide in what way their work would be presented, be it in a conversation about the piece or even a visit to another event they deemed relevant to their process. They hereby sought to challenge the notion of a work of art as a finalised and unchangeable product. ”Flutgraben Performances” advocates for artistic work as an ongoing process evolving through time, which is why the project envisaged that ten artists keep a constant dialogue throughout the year and that a residency precedes the events. ”Montag Modus Klimata” was realised in 2019 as a one-year interdisciplinary project of the ”Montag Modus” series, curated by Léna Szirmay-Kalos, Dániel Kovács and Jasna L. Vinovrški, who together make up the MMpraxis curatorial platform. Establishing this platform enabled them to continue the ”Montag Modus” series, launched by curators Kata Krasznahorkai and Léna Szirmay-Kalos in 2015 at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin. The idea was to present Berlin- and Budapest-based dance- and performing artists alongside each other in one evening, and build a structure in which diverse works could co-exist.

The series was independent while working in close collaboration with other institutions and considering them as equal partners. ”Montag Modus Klimata” focused on current global environmental, political and social issues, relationships between people and other beings and civil and political responsibility and confronted undesirable mental states such as fear and indifference. The project was realised as five events in which artists from Berlin and Budapest performed installations and performances, and at every event a writer contributed with an essay on the given event’s subject. The curators sought to grant this essay equal visibility as the art works by exploring different ways to perform the text during the event and by probing the possibility of joint action on the part of curators, artists and writers. By engaging in organising and facilitating projects with a focus on encounters, exchange and together-ness, Public in Private reverses the implied imposition in the company’s name, explores new formats by examining their social context and opens up to a vibrant community.

133

3 AM

”3AM” was a multi-disciplinary event that brought together artists and audience in order to challenge, experiment and reinvent the formats of presentation, and/or to propose a moment where works can be tried out in a welcoming environment. It started in December 2014 and lasted until December 2018. It took place every 2-3 months in Berlin at Flutgraben Atelierhouse and each time a new artist or group of artists were invited to organize the event in the way she/he/they wanted. In total 14 events were organized with more than 200 artists and 4000 audience members taking part. In the organizing core team were Dmitry Paranyushkin, Clément Layes, Jasna L. Vinovrški, Nina Kurtela and Sandra Man. ”3AM” had a focus on giving value to experimentation and local collaboration.

“Our frame stayed purposefully open to allow for any new forms to emerge: combining performance and science, music and durational installations. We liked finished products, but we also liked testing things out and we had the luxury of being able to fail. We invite different people to collaborate with our core team every time in making the event possible. “3AM“ was an experiment. We designed the event organization to be transparent. We made our process public and the event ran thanks to the volunteers who made it possible.

In short, everybody was a volunteer! We were not interested to set up a new platform for artist visibility but rather to create and preserve a time that could allow experiment and failure to happen, discussion and silence. It was not about success, fame, reward but rather about attempt, participation, reflexion. As we were looking for ways to minimize the consumerist aspect of the events, the audience was as well invited to take part, take care of practical and artistic aspects of the event.“

Tracing the Beginnings of “3AM“ Uri Turkenich

The first time I collaborated with Clément and Jasna was on the organisation of the “3AM“ event series. I felt our initial meetings had a strong impact on me and how I thought about art, and on our continued collaboration in the frame of “Flutgraben Performances”. I asked Clément and Jasna to remember these meetings with me. Uri: The first time we collaborated was on the second “3AM“ event. In the meetings leading up to it, we formulated a lot of ideas that later shaped the whole series. I felt that something was missing for us in how we were working at the time and we believed we could use this event series to meet our needs. What was the first event like for you and how did it transition into the second? Clément: Felix Marchand asked me whether he could use the studio for his performance. It was during the Christmas holidays and so I thought it would be nice to invite more people and make an event out of it. Also my birthday is on the 30th of December and so I liked the idea of celebrating it a bit undercover. I spoke with Dmitry Paranyushkin, who was just coming back from France and he joined us in envisioning and organising it. We invited a few performers, Frank Willens and Jasna showed something as well. It was very low-key, but somehow it felt good, it was so easy-going and Jasna was very enthusiastic so she invited you to organise the next one. Jasna: As it was Clément’s birthday, there was a moment of celebration and party dancing. There were not more than 50 people there, but for us to have gathered 50 people for such a small happening was significant. We were like… wow! So I asked Dmitry and Clément if they would be interested in continuing with a series, as I felt it had potential.

Uri: Also at the time, I felt that when I was going to see shows in theatres, it was not always fun - it felt stressful and the social interactions were awkward. I think unconsciously I was looking for a place with a different atmosphere. During the first two events the atmosphere felt almost like the opposite, and this was something I found precious. It was like, yes! It can happen in another way, there doesn’t have to be this pressure from the institution or from internal competition. It can be fun and full of dancing! Jasna: Yes, I found that I was lacking this moment of meeting other people for the sake of meeting and exchanging. Or just being able to sense my community and get together as a community and not as some kind of competitive pool. I found that these try outs brought solidarity, because as an audience, you know that when you come to see the try outs you are supporting the artist and so you’re not coming only to see the artwork. Equally, the artists aren’t showing the work only with the ambition to circulate it in the professional field as a product. An event format like this really goes to the artistic questions and asks how the artwork reaches the audience. Clément: I found this question and the idea of try outs interesting. A work being shown at an early stage of its process is also a way to test it and try out its quality. But this try out has to be formulated: What is being tried out? How do I want the audience to respond? Do I want people to laugh? Do I want a strong emotional response? I remember Uri was talking about these stand-up comedians who would try their jokes many times before showing them to a big audience.

They needed to practice with a small audience first. In the contemporary dance field we are disconnected from the audience until the day of the premiere when the show is supposed to be finished and ready to tour. This was a problem that we wanted to solve through this platform. Uri: I was listening to interviews with comedians, and they said that they go to these comedy bars and show just five minutes of material and see if it works. When people laugh, they know it is working. After that they know how to continue to work on the material. And I thought it would be great to have a similar platform for artists as well. The connection with the audience is a bit more complex with performances but I feel that after a performance I kind of know more about what I did. Clément: The experience of showing the audience a work reveals it somehow. It was our intention to make this sensation, this moment of revelation, possible, outside of when it usually occurs during its premiere at an official institution. Usually there’s a lot of pressure to succeed from the professionals and the press. We wanted to create a platform where that could happen regularly. Jasna: It took time for the try-out idea to reach other choreographers. We had to keep communicating it to them. The idea was to test your ideas and then work on them, and anyhow the space at Flutgraben didn’t really allow for high-end productions. It had the rough vibe of an old factory. We were searching for a term for this different way of showing the works and so we started to play with the term “try out”. The events often contained the word try out in the title, like “It’s all about trying it out” or “Try outs for you”.

137

So the term “try out" started to circulate in the dance scene, and in this way we contributed to an alternative model of how artistic work can exist. Clément: Yes, the vibe was really amazing, We were all very much searching for alternatives - I was busy with the idea of a “Fantastic Institution” and we had discussions about it in the How-do-we-work-it group. What is it that we actually want from an institution? What do we miss? We also formulated things that nourished the development of “3AM“. In the wider Berlin scene I felt we were all looking for something other than this framework that felt a little bit blocked. Uri: The amount of people in the audience grew with each event. I was very happy to see so many people coming to the event that were not from the art scene. I was worried at the time that in general, the whole field was getting smaller, in terms of budget, in terms of audience, and in terms of places to show works. That’s what I heard when I spoke with theatre directors, who always told me how they fight to keep their budget and that there’s so little all the time. They almost never spoke about having more or growing. I thought that these try outs could raise the artistic level of the works, and then maybe more people would be interested in seeing them. And the party and this amazing building brought even more people to the event. I felt like it was happening. For the first events there was no funding at all. We were thinking about how to invite artists to show their work, but we could not pay. As we didn’t want to ask them to perform for free, we thought, ok, maybe they can use the event to develop what they are already working on and improve the quality. Jasna: Yes, it was attractive to use this platform, because if you do a work-inprogress alone, it’s more difficult to gather a lot of people to see it. But when you show your work alongside other artists, you gain a more heterogeneous audience.

And that seemed very helpful for many of the artists. Also, from the beginning we didn’t want the three of us, Dmitry, Clément and myself, to be the only organisers, so I invited you to join us and later on Nina Kurtela, Sandra Man, Léna Szirmay-Kalos, Diego Agullo, Bling-Bling collective, Vulva club and many others. All these people contributed to the development of “3AM“. I was insisting that the events happen regularly, namely every two to three months. This way we would keep audiences engaged, rather than the event happening once in a while and then getting lost in many other activities. And as other artists could sometimes take over the organisation and invite people they knew, the people presenting would not only be the people we knew. By giving other artists the possibility to organise, facilitate and curate the events, and by inviting the audience to help out during the evening, the event got many people in the community involved. That was one of the strongest values of “3AM“ for me. Uri: Another value I saw in the event was the continuation of discussions over the years with you and the other artists who participated. It was an excuse to speak about something practical, while also speaking about our artistic interests at that moment, what was missing for us in the art scene, what we learned from what had happened in the last event, about ideology and work, etc. It was a welcome mix between something practical and ideas we wanted to try. A discourse developed between us in a very organic way and it fed back into the discussions we had on how to organise the events, how to deal with our own artworks, and how to continue working. It shaped a lot of what I did after I left Berlin.

139

Montag Mod u s

Klim a ta “Montag Modus Klimata“ was a five-event interdisciplinary project and a thematic issue of “Montag Modus“ series in 2019 that takes the notion of 'climate' in its broadest sense as the project’s point of departure. The fundamental objective of “Klimata“ is to present a local reading of political, ecological, and social crises from the perspective of artists. The title, “Klimata“, refers to Bruno Latour’s definition of ‘climates’ in the German translation of “Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime” and is understood as “a wide range of relationships between humans and their material living conditions”. Latour considers the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene as a fundamental crisis of modernity – a modernity built on abstract assumptions and detached from its material constraints.

The political anomalies of the present-day illustrate that the majority of the response to this crisis encourages unholy alliances against the real problem – namely, to find another way to live on this Earth. Over the course of 2019, “Montag Modus Klimata“ invited 3 to 5 productions of Budapest- and Berlin-based artists from both visual and performing arts, as well as a writer or cultural scholar to contribute to the given topic in their respective media. “Montag Modus“ allocated one-week residencies to the participants in the time preceding the public event in order for them to experiment and further develop their works. The events took place at two respective venues: Collegium Hungaricum Berlin and Flutgraben Atelierhouse in Berlin. The curatorial team of “Montag Modus Klimata“ was Léna Szirmay-Kalos, Dániel Kovács and Jasna L. Vinovrški.

to care to curate Léna Szirmay-Kalos “Montag Modus“ is a site-specific interdisciplinary series that centers around performance, choreography and time-based media. Since 201 5, each event presents multiple works and offers a one-week onsite residency to the artists. From its beginnings, it investigates different methodologies of how to present live art and tests the formats of these events. In the frame of this ongoing research, it continues to question which forms of knowledge arise through the combination of live works. Since 201 6 I have been collaborating with Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes. Our working relationship started with my invitation to Jasna to perform at “Montag Modus“, followed by Jasna inviting me to organize an edition of “3AM“ with her. These occasions led to more collaborations that led to inspiring conversations and a friendship that has been essential to the development of the “Montag Modus“ series and me personally. At the end of 201 8, after having led “Montag Modus“ for years, I felt that the series' structure demanded new perspectives and a different point of view. I invited Jasna, along with art historian Dániel Kovács, to join the curatorial team for the one-year long project “Montag Modus Klimata“. Together we founded the MMpraxis curatorial platform, which took over the directorial role of “Montag Modus“. In this frame, “Montag Modus Klimata“ became MMpraxis curatorial platform's first project.

The five-event interdisciplinary project was a collective curatorial project investigating the notion of ‘climate’. With the collaboration between artists, curators and institutions at its core, we explored in which ways these relations could be challenged on an artistic, curatorial and productional level. Spurred on by the current ecological situation which clearly requires us to reconfigure our perspective, we sought new modes of curating and engaging with live art. Curating is always a collaborative practice. As a term, it finds its etymological root in the Latin verb ‘curare’ which translates into English as ‘to care for’. Jasna’s background as an artist and her approach in caring for social situations have impacted how I facilitate events. Our collaboration on Klimata has inspired me to further explore and deepen my understanding of what it means to curate.

143

Flutgraben Performances

“Flutgraben Performances“ is a series of events located at Flutgraben, an artist-run studio building in Berlin Treptow. It is dedicated to the exploration, growth and transformation of live art. Each year a group of 10–12 artists comes and works together. Individually the artists follow their own artistic tracks without any limits in form and content. They use the time to test, develop, re-think and discuss their artistic practices and believes. On a collective level the group invents new forms of meeting the public, aiming for an encounter of artist, art work and art lover as a fertile, intimate and joyful act. "Flutgraben Performances“ was initiated in 2019 and is run by Clément Layes, Moritz Majce, Sandra Man and Jasna L. Vinovrški.

In Between Individual and Collective An insight into working together with Clément Layes and Jasna L. Vinovrški on “Flutgraben Performances“

Sandra Man I met Clément in 2015 at a workshop, and we started talking about our common interest in new contexts for performance art beyond the theater and the gallery space; I got to know Jasna at my first “3AM“ event, an art series, coinitiated by Clément and Jasna, that was dedicated to this very question. At this event held on the freezing cold night of Dec. 30th 2015, I was touched by Jasna’s love for hosting and impressed by the generosity of the both of them: in a city with a highly competitive art scene, I found myself in a warm and vivid atmosphere that allowed artists to show what they were working on to a crowd that was, tuned by the hosts, supportive and welcoming towards what was being offered to them. I was inspired by the difference they managed to make and we soon started meeting regularly and working together on what turned out to be one more season of “3AM“, and which then, eventually and up until now, became “Flutgraben Performances“. Reflecting on how we work together (the four of us, Moritz Majce came in too) a space comes to my mind, a space that is at the same time open and connecting, soft and demanding: it is the in-between us as individuals and us as a collective. I think that we are working from a very special place where we are no longer just singular entities and yet are not giving ourselves up to complete a superior unity.

This space in-between that I mean and feel when thinking of us working together is situated beyond what we do and who we each are as individual artists and at the same time it does not unify us. It is a space that we constantly re-create, re-shape, re-investigate and re-discover. We don’t inhabit the space that we go to in order to meet and work together; we don’t take it for granted. It is not a territory, not a common ground where we come together. We do not identify with our work space: we never ask “what do we have in common?” and we never define roles, or who we are in this community. I did not know this place before. It allows for the possibility to constantly get to know each other anew rather than the longing for an identity. This spirit of curiosity is passed on to the artists who we ask to join “Flutgraben Performances“ every year. It is crystallized in a format that we invented with the first group of invited artists in 2019 and which became the core instrument for connecting us: the »insights«. »Insights« are very simple and powerful, they are tours given by each artist through his*her artistic universe several times during one edition. Every artist is granted a free interpretation of this task. During an »insight« we all meet and are again and again introduced to what someone else is doing, what s*he is driven and motivated by, looking for and anxious about. Through these »insights« we delve deeper into what is already there and what each of us brings in anyway.

In contrast to other groups I am or was part of, we do not try to categorise, align or brand “Flutgraben Performances“. We don’t long for a profile, a program or principles. From the beginning, we did not know if we could work together, and it certainly takes time and constant attention to figure out how much and how little is needed for us in order to be able to open up to ourselves and those who we invite. With “Flutgraben Performances“, the idea and practice of staying in an in-between, of trusting in what is already there instead of projecting into the future and continuously getting to know each other expands like concentric circles: it grows from the inbetween the four of us into the larger group that we build together with the invited artists, and it finally also affects the way we address the public. Especially the current edition in 2020, which had to be changed and was challenged by the Covid pandemic, has started to make the in-between - a space of constantly new encounters - visible and accessible to the audience. Intimate settings and limited numbers of guests bring the way we work from the inside and the way we open up to the outside closer together. It is, perhaps, a space in between public and private that we are creating together.

Some time at the beginning of 2019, a very strong moment occurred between the four of us: we suddenly started to speak of growth and of “letting it emerge”; most likely this revelation came to us as a reaction to the “3AM“ series that overwhelmingly exploded in size (both in terms of audience and of artists wanting to participate). But as much as it probably was a reaction, it somehow became something in itself, a guideline that gave us direction without being a “program”.

147

The Fantastic Institution Clément Layes

The Fantastic Institution was one of the topics of the “How We Work It” meetings that took place between a group of Berlin-based choreographers from 201 4 to 201 7 in which Jasna and I used to regulary take part. In 201 7 I asked for a small scholarship from BUDA art center to write about the topic, and Agnes Quackles, the director at the time, organized two symposiums with guests curators and artists. This text was written on the train on the way back from the last symposium and is freely based on the ideas we covered during the process.

“I have decided to leave my luggage unattended“ are the words ending the short essay by Francis McKee, one of the key speakers at the symposium. His lecture was titled “How to know what's really happening?“, which is, indeed, a really good question. The Fantastic Institution from the beginning was meant to be about dreaming and how institutions could provide a space for this. In the symposiums there was a general agreement that small and self-organized venues are the model for future institutions, as they are much more in touch and reactive. In these days of the migration crisis, the “Me too” hashtag and queer trends, the issues of minorities, of integration, of openness and true generosity are often discussed. It seems that larger venues can't handle change easily, but as change is coming their way a model is needed that could reassure them. We call it: The Fantastic Institution. Ortherwise those institutions might simply disappear, there might be no way to keep these old venues alive. Is there anything that could enter their walls and give them a new soul? Because what is missing in those places, is a soul. Not ideas of directors, intendants and dramaturges, but a soul that inhabits the place: a soul you enter, you go through, a soul you come to visit, you are in touch with, you are regenerated by and create with. A soul that can be warm, welcoming, open to the unknown, comforting and supportive. A complex structure of things, plants, minerals, humans, ideas, animals, water and air. This is what The Fantastic Institution is, in the first place.

20th century venues

A feminist institution

A few people have remarked that some things still might work in large venues, it’s not black and white, there are things that can be kept: it could be a big building in the city center. The entrance is a large opening, a place where the circulation between the inside and outside is easy and inviting. Inside, the foyer is more than a waiting area, it's a place to stay, with a library where people can come and sit for hours. There's a café to meet and talk, a cheap restaurant that is attractive to the people who reside in the area, as well as the workers in the building, the staff and the artists. So the entrance is welcoming, and doesn't segregate on the basis of excellency. Here, the codes of culture are not overwhelming: there are not many things you need to know, there is no pressure to partake in academic discourse, neither is there a feeling that a certain financial standing is necessary to be in this place. On the contrary, it is designed to make it easy for people to access: the library shares novels, magazines and elaborate art books. It's not yet anything like art, but it is an entrance to art. It's a kind of social art: anyone is welcome to help at the bar, to choose the music, to cook, to serve in the restaurant or organize and improve the library. Hosting is important. It's about creating an open collectivity that is at the core of the institution and which sits at its entrance, namely the passage from the city to the venue.

The level of hospitality goes hand in hand with the softness needed in the fantastic institution. It's a feminine institution that is able to listen and is motherly as well. It is not a patriarchal, hierarchical structure that displays strong works. Rather, it operates more along the lines of the soft diffusion of information that happens in the forest through the miscelium. It's like an invisible network of solidarities. It's a place to be courageous. During the symposium, we were reminded of Captain Mission, the pirate who created Libertaria on Madagascar with his fellow humans. Later he entered the forest to live with the lemurs, familiarising himself with this small ghostly animal, and dehumanizing himself in the process. The Fantastic Institution invites to decentralise ourselves, transform, decolonize, reinvent our beings.

149

A new vision

The artist's perspective

The historical failure of the driving forces of change to create a more equal world, haunts our assembly. It is searching for a new way to come to life again, a new entrance that could resolve the betrayal and the lies. A blurry idea, a vision arises in the midst of endless discussion, towards an equality that recognises different needs, different beings and that is rooted in the experience of the freedom one encounters in feeling and understanding being part of a multiplicity. It seems vague. I would prefer to say that at the center of The Fantastic Institution there's a big empty room, empty also of projections. It’s up to the ones that go there to organise it for a while, then it changes. In fact the institution removes and displaces things from the world and installs them in this space.

“We cannot accept that institutions do not practice what they propose“*. We cannot accept their display of avant-guard ideologies while remaining rigid and hierarchic, violent in their selection process, exclusive, excluding and participants in gentrification by raising their ticket prices... It's outrageous when an institution appropriates discourses and represents ideas which they are intrinsically incapable of achieving. The artists who took part in the symposium were unsatisfied, as the power relations between artists and curators is as usual unbalanced and shows how the managerial side of production is granted a much larger importance than the creative side. It would be necessary for curators to adopt some of the tools artists have developed to make works, and thereby not solely remain in a “make it function“ type of dynamic. What about the artist in the curator? Why should their be such a division anyway?

The failing core of the institution Soft, hosting, feminist and a possible shelter: The Fantastic Institution is lastly a place which accepts that failure is at its core. Failure is the shadow of any creation: the potential to fail is the counterpart of any attempt to make something new. There's not enough space to try things out, to test ideas and to experiment with the audience in the moment when the importance of the work is relative to that time and not to any future. The Fantastic Institution invites to keep the work open. And obviously the audience is much more interested in being invited into works which are still open and in participating in a context which is still undefined, searching itself, where they can search along. This is the moment in which audiences are put to work, where they are engaged in something other than a consumer good. It's not only the content that defines entertainment, rather, the context and the framing of the work play a large role in its definition. The Fantastic Institution is "a shift in the institutional practice toward being a site for aesthetic AND political experimentation”*.

The language of the institution At the symposium we were encouraged to stay with the trouble. The trouble is to stay light, and not succumb to the weight and worries politics has laden us with. Institutions should follow and experience this lightness alongside the artist. It seems this is also part of The Fantastic Institution: to remain in the mist, the blurriness of artistic trouble. A clear, reassuring language, is therefore not adequate for art. There's enormous potential for The Fantastic Institution to reinvent the language it uses: how it speaks and shakes words, how it talks to people, how it invites them in, how it expresses what it's doing. The Fantastic Institution is fantastic through its expression as well, its catalogues, its books, its magazines, its website, or in other ways: street art, gorilla posters, concerts in hot air balloons, manifestos...

To conclude The Fantastic Institution requires rethinking the entire apparatus of art making and its diffusion, it requires change in society. It's on the side of an international model of organizing works and speaking about them, which goes hand in hand with gentrification, exclusion, economic growth and increasing financial precarity. At the symposium a new social class division was addressed: the “salariat“ versus the “precariat“, the latter being a working force that is constantly available, flexible and unorganized - artists are a good example of this category. The old institution should decolonize itself and spaces for art should be reclaimed, reinvented, shared, and not appropriated by the select few. We hear from curators that too many works are being produced, but it's the opposite: too few people are making art, sharing art. Events can be organized in living rooms, kitchens, central squares, parks, forests. And when no space is available, artists could occupy theatres and empty spaces and produce works outside of the main art structures. It is a way to gain freedom, equality, dignity. The art institution can no longer be a small market in which new works are displayed only to the experts. It is a public place which serves to empower people and in which conflicting visions are confronted. It's a patient and attentive practice that needs time, but that everybody can participate in only with attention and love.

151

152

“As we worked on this publication, we entered a rich process of remembering and reflecting on our artistic journeys of the past 1 2 years. Not only our art stands at the core of this journey, but also the encounter between us, as two artists who are growing in constant dialogue with one another, and the encounters we experience with our dear collaborators. Like a woven fabric, this journey continues to manifest itself and step by step reveals our future destinations...“

Jasna L. Vinovrški & Clément Layes

153

Translations

How to See the World Differently Again? “At a Peepshow with a Mobile Phone” is the incisive title of literary studies scholar Gertrud Lehnert’s critique of the increasing entanglement between public and private life in our society. When I met Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes, the name of their company immediately reminded me of that book – Public in Private of course. More than ten years later, I remember this first personal association. Admittedly, I’ve never encountered either a mobile phone or a peepshow in Clément and Jasna’s work. But there are some things that Gertrud Lehnert’s monograph and Public in Private’s many choreographies do have in common: they talk about opposing pairs of concepts, which are maybe not so opposite after all, never were or at least don’t have to be. And they do it with the wink of an eye. Whenever some knowledge believed to be solid starts to liquefy, distinct attributions and allocations in the system of knowledge start to wobble, when the strict logic of the Enlightenment, according to which 1 + 1 always equals 2, is suspended, then for a moment magic covers the world and it appears in a different light. And I have seen this magic in Public in Private’s work again and again – and succumbed to it. Maybe this is most simply demonstrated by the example of “Allege”, the solo that everything, including me, started with: the amusing opening scene of “Allege”, in which a guy that seems a bit eccentric very awkwardly, but with a huge amount of physical effort tries to water a plant with a glass balanced skilfully on his body, following all kinds of absurd-seeming plans, culminates in a play about the meaning of things. The previously spilled water quickly turns into an ocean, the wet cloth a dream. And with a “And the dream goes to the ocean”, the cloth lands in the puddle and the two objects plunge into their new designation of being. More and more props are given new meanings, embody abstract concepts, form new pairs and meanings together, and are piled in towers on the table in the middle of the stage forming abstract new word-thing creations. The performance unfolds with an enormous pull, pulling the audience along with

it and making the things speak. Knowledge is rearranged, boxes in our thinking filled with different things. The world of an other, literally in the blink of an eye. And it did so on tour all over the world incidentally. Here and elsewhere, the audience seemed exhilarated and then contemplative as they left the theatre after the show with the question: “Who can I escape my fixed thinking? How can I see the world differently again?“ It’s this question that seems to be the motivation behind Public in Private’s work for me. It’s this manner of not seeing what exists as something that cannot be toppled, but the liberating potential for it to be different, for things to be different. Everyday objects mutate into independent personalities, dreams become real life, dearly held routines become a journey through time and space. They are observations of life and our society. Every performance is an appeal and reminder that things can be done differently and that thinking is free. This political idea is private to the extent that it comes across disguised as a slickly deployed lightness. Each of their artistic works is flavoured with a pinch of humour and poetry, which skilfully allows the serious core to slowly melt on the tongue. This two is a pair of opposites that Public in Private know how to connect – with the clear purpose of making art for everyone and not just for the elite(s). And their success shows that the two theatre-makers are right in their approach. Since 2017, the state of Berlin attests to their achievement by providing continuous, long-term funding. This means that Jasna L. Vinovrški and Clément Layes belong to the select circle of those that artistically represent the state of Berlin. The path here was not as easy as the balancing act with the glass of water in “Allege”. As they continue down their path in future, I therefore wish them the same lightness that is inherent to their work, the strength to keep creatively thinking about the world in a different way and future collaborators and audiences that will both remain enthusiastic about their work.

Bjoern Frers

Text in original language p.18

Ethics Embracing Aesthetics I have been witnessing Jasna L. Vinovrški’s authorial development from the very beginning, since “Mittelwelle AFC“ and “Which Club?“ onwards, as I attended the events of Dance Week Festival and Platform HR in Zagreb, where she regularly performed. I cannot say these early pieces fell in line with my inclination towards ingrained choreographic concepts or that we immediately clicked. On the contrary, they often quietly disturbed me, forcing me to think about what bothered me and why. Which nevertheless seemed better than having no view at all, because that would mean I was in no way affected by the stage creation. And I was affected more than I would have liked. At first it all seemed much too obvious, as though the works offered little that would lure me to explore the material in more detail. Everything seemed evident in itself, clearly established, focused on one thematic point, carried out with precision. I almost secretly desired a spot, a blemish, a derailment from the system that would obfuscate this clarity. Little by little, Jasna L. Vinovrški’s work became my synonym for the combination of dance and theatre and the simplicity of form, with the use of speech, objects and irony as ongoing elements. And a sign of my own acquiescence. And then it suddenly clicked. Everything fell into place: the individual mechanism was backed by a carefully built network of choreographic strategies and stage signage, intertwined with previous works. It allowed for an unravelling of poetics both complex and powerful. The un-pretentious form that Jasna L. Vinovrški tactfully and shrewdly opts for gives her supple, manipulative space for valuable, tiny articulations and numerous subtleties in terms of meaning, as well as the development and tryouts of subtle actions and skills, contributing to the many facets and textures of the piece. With this she also consents to the possible lack of flow on stage, ruptures in optics

and viewing crises, taking them as a chance for reflexive and self-reflexive detachment, ironic commentary or the critique of certain social anomalies, lucidly avoiding moralisation and provoking responses in her audience which can, subsequently, spark real, off-stage changes.

Performativity The simplification of the theatrical mechanism in relation to the performative form and the spatial relations between performers and between performers and audience, as well as the focus on several choreographic markers which all contribute to the linear flow of either the entire piece, or smaller, separate segments within it, make it possible for the author to commit to working on performing and performativity itself. The performances I have seen over the years, including the already mentioned and “Modal Verbs“, “Staying Alive“, “Lady Justice“ and “Ensemble“, approach performativity from an embodied character and a staged situation, i.e. from the internal perspective of the representational complex. Two pieces I haven’t managed to see, “Under Construction“ and “Live to Tape, a Still Moving Talk Show“, examine performativity in relation to the performance medium, questioning presence, “the production of presence” (H. U. Gumbrecht), and the scope and meaning of the role, i.e. the embodiment of character. Stepping away from bequeathed conventions of theatre, the dancer’s, or, more accurately, the dancing body even performs the embodied character. It doesn’t narrate, simulate or assume the action and doesn’t substitute it with a sign, but rather performs actual physical work. To work on a performance implies the choosing of tactics and the working on performative modes during the performative event. It implies the testing and finetuning of one’s own performative strengths and capacities depending on the specific performance context.

Paying attention to performative material and being on the stage, especially when seemingly nothing is happening, demands the performer’s focus on the impact of their presence and their material, and shifts the focus to the viewers, by raising awareness and controlling various states, emotions, evocations and intentions. Apart from this act, performance work can also be considered as an independent entity which eludes the performer’s steering and emanates meanings combined with the performance context – yet another thing the performer needs to balance between. This was more evidently expressed in performances, such as “Staying Alive“ and “Lady Justice“, which include an ‘audience moment’ that supports the performer in completing her task with kinaesthetic empathy or in accepting her role of arranging props around the performative space. In others, such as “Modal Verbs“, she is also acknowledging that her audience can recognise commonplaces, and hereby she pays more attention to her voice posturing, the body’s stand on the expressed content and the synergy of speech and movement.

Language Linguistic and complementary gestural and mimic codes are the focus of Jasna L. Vinovrški’s work just as much as movement is. From a dance perspective, an art form that is expressly physical, the use of language and speech is not disparate. Moreover, the production of speech can be seen as crossing the boundaries of the body and expanding into space. A word uttered by way of the speech apparatus vibrates across the space, taking it. At the same time, detaching itself from the body, the word belongs neither to the physical nor to the external space, but is rather distributed across them.

155

This sheds light on the speaker as a mediator and the word as an object realised in space, just like movement is, and hereby words enter the field of choreographic research. As the spoken word belongs neither entirely to the body nor the space, speech reveals itself as the otherness of language – which as a socially authorised system on a subconscious level plays a role in forming meaning – because the production of speech includes different linguistic errors, slips of the tongue, pauses, wrong accents etc., disturbing the semantics of words, sentences and super-sentential units. The semantic field in a natural language greatly defines the way the individual grammar units are connected. This means that by disturbing the order of words and other forms of structural deregulation will lead to certain processes of desemantisation or resemantisation. Apart from the fact that such dissected units can be recomposed visually or sonically, in line with movement composition, desemantisation weakens power relations and hence also weakens the inherent ideological repression, manifested by language, which conditions our notion of the world.Among the dance pieces discussed here, the focus on linguistic structures is the most explicit in “Modal Verbs“, in which these synsemantic verbs express a possibility or a necessity and as such directly imply power relations. These relations are not equally arranged in every language because a language is a reflection of its culture, whereby language and culture determine and produce each other mutually. Bearing in mind the fact that the meaning of modal verbs changes from one language to the other, the author analyses how these differences in the languages she speaks reflect on corporeality and performativity. Changes are visible already from the way the pronunciation of distinct sounds in languages affects the facial mimic. Also, changing the soundscape increases the number of possibilities the performer can utilise to respond to a certain

performative situation. It allows her to toy with connotations, linguistic metaphors and sociocommunication stereotypes. It allows her to poeticise language, experiment with the sonic level of language and express the different characters of each language through the quality of movement. In terms of power relations, the use of multiple languages in the performance also questions the fact that in the dance world, as well as globally, English has been adopted as a lingua franca, causing a not always welcome iunification. “Staying Alive“ is another piece the author carried out bilingually, in English and in the language of the country she performs it in, and this, evoking the experience of language barriers we have all felt, serves as a backdrop for humorous twists. Thanks to a larger number of performers, two procedures stand out in “Ensemble“. A scene in which she introduces herself vocally interrupts the observation of the visual flow and the information provided affects the perception of further events and how viewers come to understand them. And then, reversely, during the scenes of overlapping sounds and mutual overpowering or speaking at the same time, the words are revoked and thus demystify the very universe they have established.

Solo vs. collective Since early modern dance, the form of the solo is linked to the emancipation of movement as a condition of independent dance art and the emancipation of the body from various disciplines, even from choreography. In other words, the solo was first established as a form in which the authors themselves choreograph and perform their dance as an externalised individual experience. Consequently, the solo is today still the most frequent form of presentation of one’s own artistic endeavours. Let us also bear in mind that a solo is the cheapest product present on the art market, but for now I shall leave this train of thought aside. My point is that it is not unusual that Jasna L. Vinovrški, stepping away from performing pieces by other choreographers and seeking her own creative voice, resorted to the solo form.

She is unique in that after her initial work “Mittelwelle AFC“, she collaborated with dancer Unita Gay Galiluyo on its sequel, the solo “Which Club?“, and only after several other choreographic projects did she return to examine and perform solos, first in “Modal Verbs“, then in “Staying Alive“ and “Lady Justice“. This leads me to conclude that Jasna L. Vinovrški, from the outset, doesn’t consent to fetishize choreographic creativity as an invention of a unique and outstanding talent, and that she perceives a solo as a form always in relation to someone or something else, be it her co-workers, her audience, or the social context in which she is performing. Her last three solos can therefore be observed in the sense of solidifying aesthetic traits and a particular creative maturing. This seems particularly interesting since they are followed by “Ensemble“, in which the author and the dancers of the Studio Contemporary Dance Company juxtapose the individual and the collective, both on the level of artistic creation and on the level of organisation. While relying on individualism against the backdrop of capitalism and juxtaposing it with socialist convictions, a question is raised: which form of community is possible in a company in which an individual doesn’t represent only the individual’s voice, and neither abstract, collective interests, of whose actions would reflect both the individual and a collective identity? Which status does such an action (reflecting both the individual and a collective identity) have in relation to the solo as a form backed by the philosophy of individualism, that is so ingrained in the foundations of the evolution of the contemporary dance scene? Can we speak of collective subjectivity and how it is realised? How is responsibility distributed, in an act of art, in anything? From shining light on the powerlessness of an individual against the bureaucratic system and the disempowerment of migrants, to referring to patterns and structures supporting power mechanisms, to collaborative and curatorial projects focusing on strengthening the ties in the Berlin scene, the artistic activity of Jasna L. Vinovrški has always particularly

accentuated the social aspect of performance and social relations in general. And while I’m revising and rearranging these last few lines a day after a strong earthquake in Zagreb, at a time of countless restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus and reducing art to its current level of exchange in the digital world, her attentiveness to social issues and focus on the community assume a new dimension. Whether art as we know it will survive, and whether the social system will change before the forces of nature to embrace better and more equal practices, depends primarily on the strength of both the immediate and the broader human community. Clearly, aesthetics will have to give way to ethics, but art doubtlessly builds the community spirit. It draws from a jointly designed reality and gives back to society in a re-evaluated form.

Ivana Slunjski Text in original language p. 26

157

On Language and Multilingualism in “Modal Verbs” Modal verbs are very strange words. Taken by themselves they have very little content, but in usage they reveal a profound effect. Thus, there is a huge difference between the statements “I must read this text”, “I may read this text” and “I want to read this text”. Even if we don’t pay much attention to them, modal verbs define the field of possibilities and limits for the acting subject, and determine its degree of self-determination and responsibility. For the performance “Modal Verbs”, we investigated how the different modalities affect our corporeality, movements and attitudes. The starting point for doing this using several languages, namely German, English and Croatian, was especially Jasna’s experience of multilingualism in real life, which has made her very aware of language as such. I accompanied the production as a dramaturge, and since I also work as a translator, I share Jasna’s interest in multilingualism and the ways language affects us. The meanings and functions of modal verbs are sometimes different in various languages or shift slightly. We chose the German modal verbs müssen (must), sollen (should), dürfen (may), können (can), wollen (want) and möchten (would like) as a basis and then defined the way they work more precisely. During this process of definition and especially when translating the modal verbs into other languages, we did not focus on linguistic correctness, but rather on the mechanisms and ways of functioning behind the words. Jasna looked at verbs on a philosophical level and then linked them to concrete actions. In the performance, we defined ich möchte as I want and discussed for example Deleuze. Inspired by his “Abécédaire”, we then defined the möchten of something as a wishing and desiring that is not directed at a single object, but at the context, the ensemble in which the object finds itself. To explore this in practice, Jasna decided to work with the materiality of fabric in this part and with the process of concealing and revealing.

Inspired by the strict methodical rigour surrounding grammar, Jasna divided the choreography into chapters: framed by a prologue and an epilogue, she goes through the modal verbs in the first person singular in series in the role of a strict teacher. This formal and clear structure provides the framework for playing with language itself and its relationship to body and movement. A large part of the humour of the performance also comes from the friction and conflict with this purported strictness. Even if the theme of “Modal Verbs” is language, the main focus of what happens on stage is not spoken text, but on transforming what language does into images. The three languages, German, English and Croatian, largely have an equal role. All members of the audience were supposed to be able to follow the content of the performance if they could speak at least one of the languages. Not every theatre form or every genre is equally suitable for the equal use of several languages – if the show is not working with surtitles or similar. In “Modal Verbs” what is said or language itself becomes the object of investigation, since the aim was precisely to examine the meaning and function of the modal verbs. In the process, various connotations of the modal verbs in the different languages reveal themselves and the different sounds and language melodies clearly come to the fore. The example of the verb wollen highlights the issue of translation or untranslatability as such in a humorous way. “Ich will” cannot be directly translated with “I will” – but after a long discussion on this, we decided to designate it this way. This opens up another level of meaning to the word and the implementation of what is wanted also resonates in it: “I want to do it and I will do it.” However, the main emphasis of the piece is not the subtleties of grammar, such as the question of which words belong to the modal verbs at all and which don't, which is also different

in different languages. It is about the modalities as such and how they are communicated in different languages. Overall, the show’s main vitality is what happens on stage, in other words the physical embodiment of the implications of the modal verbs. The text mainly identifies the verb that each part is based on. In the sollen part, there is an example for how to handle the three languages, which provides everyone with an understanding of what’s happening, without everything being repeated in all the languages. Sollen, or the fulfilment of duties according to internalised laws or aims, appears in this scene as a form of self-discipline. In her role as teacher, Jasna carries out gymnastic exercises and at the same recites tongue-twisters as a speech exercise. Since tongue-twisters are per se hardly translatable, we chose various ones in the three languages. In this way, the principle we’re concerned with is quickly made clear to everyone, even if they don’t necessarily all understand everything. The frustration of not understanding something gives way to the enjoyment of hearing all the different sounds of the languages. The multilingualism of the performance demonstrates that the modalities of our language don’t necessarily have to be the way they are. This knowledge as well as having an awareness at all for how the modal verbs work enable us to take a new look at our own language.

Katja von der Ropp

Text in original language p. 50

With Public in Private A few years ago, Clément used to play a collective game consisting of placing an object in the middle of a group of participants and, following the principles of free association, finding a new name for it - or a title that would be accepted by the group. On the contrary, I am now wondering what object, image or place would best correspond to the name: “public in private“. The first thing that comes to mind is the Flutgraben studio. It is becoming increasingly rare, among performance makers and institutions, for works to be identified with their place of production, piece after piece. The visual artist has a studio, the writer has an office or a café or a library, but choreographers and directors are often, by necessity, in residence far from home and from their everyday life. Nomadism has its advantages, but it also narrows research to fixed periods and floating contexts. I have always admired the daily, the private and above all the chosen dimension of the Flutgraben studio. But this is too obvious to embody the name “public in private“. Perhaps we should enter the studio. There are the ghosts of the old works and therefore probably also the ghosts of future works. Sometimes they are the same. I mean those objects and bits of altered objects that have always been the real protagonists of Clément's pieces. Their shape, their attributes, their imperfections have determined the times of rehearsal. Objects that live day after day in the studio that we visit. It is probably the core of the work that has been carried out for the past ten years to have succeeded in raising this small tribe of objects, and to have given them the status of an assembly. I know most of them quite well. The storage accessories, the suitcases and bags, the crushed storage boxes, if they don't enter the set, fully

belong to this assembly. With their wounds. I recall a suitcase wheel lost on a platform at the Albany train station in New York State in temperatures below -20°. For quite some time we had been rolling the enormous suitcase full of accessories. But this time, from this station in Albany, we had to drag it. It took place in the manner of a clown act: first the negotiation to find out who would take the suitcase upon arrival at the station, then the act of disembarking the train, Clément making the suitcase roll in front of me, a wheel collapsing under its weight and old age, and me doomed to accidentally shoot it off during the walk with a tragicomic virtuosity, causing the wheel to get lost under the train. Moreover, when we arrived in Troy a few minutes later, a sign indicated the existence of a meningitis epidemic on the campus where we were to play. The wheel must be somewhere in America and therefore a part of “public in private“ as well. I'm looking for it. A few months ago, returning to the studio for a public evening after several years of relative distance, I saw a small piece of wood that I know well and for which I feel a form of tenderness under the new tribune. It was wrapped in grey scotch tape. It reminded me of friends. It was this little piece of wood that was alone on stage at the beginning of the play “Things that surround us“ and on which we placed the patched chair, a sort of minimal crutch from which the whole universe of objects was thrown out of balance. I told myself that this little piece of wood that represented “nothing“ in the show could be my “public in private“. It is solid and enigmatic enough for that.

Vincent Weber

Text in original language p. 132

159

Credits

Mittelwelle AFC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.31 Concept/Performance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Stage: Regina Lorenz Light: Coco Durand Sound: Detlev Alexander Music: Jordi Savall, Deana Carter & Ani di Franco (B. Springsteen), Chet Baker Production by Jasna L. Vinovrški Funded by Bezirksamt Pankow von Berlin Photography: Tina Bruser

Which Club?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.31 Choreograpy: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performance: Unita Gay Galiluyo Costume: Tanja Liebermann Music: Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber „Passagalia“ Production by Jasna L. Vinovrški. Supported by State theater Freiburg Photography: Jo Grabowski Temporary Exposition/ Catch 22 . . . p.33 Concept: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performance: Unita Gay Galiluyo, Deborah Hofstetter, Julie Jaffrennou, Clément Layes, Tommy Noonan, Marco Volta, Jasna Vinovrški Music: Claudio Bettinelli Costume: Tanja Liebermann Stage: Clément Layes, Jasna L. Vinovrški Light: Carl Faber Production: Claudia Schmidt Production by Jasna L. Vinovrški Funded by Kunststifutung Baden Württemberg and Kulturamt Freiburg Photography: Martin Horsky A4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.35 Concept/Stage: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performers: Zeina Hanna. Alexandre Achour,

Milla Koistinen, Jasna L. Vinovrški Supported by the MA Choreography program HZT Photography: Magda Korsinsky Under Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . p.39 Concept/Choreography: Jasna L. Vinovrški Dramaturgic assistance: Florian Feigel Scenography und Video: Clément Layes Performance: Unita Gay Galiluyo, Olivia Maridjan-Koop, Elizabeth Wurst; Sybille Müller, Ante Pavić, Cahterine Jodoin, Monica Munos Marin, Angela Schubot, Marie Caroline Hominal, Pravdan Devlahović, Nikolina Pristaš, Clément Layes, Larisa Lipovac, David Wampach Music: Bèla Bartok Soundmix: Sebastian Waschulewski Photography: Martin Horsky Production: Susanne Ogan Production by Public in Private Gbr. Funded by: Kulturamt Freiburg, Stiftung Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Laft Baden-Württemberg, Sparkasse Freiburg Live to Tape, a Still Moving Talk Show. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.42 Idea/Choreography/Stage: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performers: Isabel Lewis, Martin Clausen Music/sound: Brandon Johnson Light: Clair Terrien Dramaturgic assistance: Wilma Renfordt Mentor: Florian Feigl, Dr. Christiane Berger Funded by MA Choreography program, HZT Photography: Ksenija Španec

Modal Verbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.49 Concept, choreography & performance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Dramaturgy: Katja von der Ropp Artistic collaboration: Sonja Augart Light: Martin Beeretz Photography: Dorothe Tuch PR & production: björn & björn Production by Public in Private. Funded by the Governing Mayor of Berlin - Senat’s Chancellery - Cultural Affairs. Supported by Platforma.hr and Flutgraben.org Staying Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.54 Idea, choreography & performance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Collaborators: Mini I Pad, the books Music: Bee Gees “staying alive” Photography: Ginelle Chagnon This production was part of the project “Migrant Bodies”, which was supported by the programme EU Culture 2007-201 3. Lady Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.59 Choreography, performance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Stage/ artistic advice: Clément Layes Music: Nina Simone Light Design: Catalina Fernandez Production: Ilja Fontaine Photography: Krunoslav Marinac Supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department and Goethe-Institut Montréal. Coproduction Théâtre de la Ville Paris.

1 0 Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.64 Choreography: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performance: Ema Crnić, Gendise Putri Kartini, Marta Habulin, Una Štalcar Furač, Anđela Bugarija, and Šimun Stankov Photography: Alen Kocić Supported by ADU- Academy of dramatic art Ansambl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.68 Concept, Choreography: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performance: Branko Banković, Koraljka Begović, Ema Crnić, Dina Ekštajn, Nastasja Štefanić, Martina Tomić, Ana Vnučec Light Design: Bojan Gagić Costumes: Ana Savić-Gecan Scenography: Clément Layes Photography: Tomislav Sporiš Production: Studio Contemporary Dance Company in co-production with Platforma HR and collaboration with Zagreb Youth Theatre and support of Cie Public in Private Funded by the Zagreb Office for Culture and Ministry of Culture of Republic Croatia Healers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.71 Concept, Choreography: Jasna L. Vinovrški Performance: Zagreb team: Branko Banković, Martina Tomić, Ana Vnučec Berlin team: Cécile Bally, Darko Dragičević, Jasna L. Vinovrški Light Design: Catalina Fernandez Costumes: Malena Modéer Stage design: Clément Layes Photography Berlin / Zagreb: Steffen Junghanss / Mia Štark Assistant choreography: Dina Ekštajn

Assistance performance: Mia Štark Assistant choreography: Dina Ekštajn Assistance performance: Mia Štark Production: Valerie Tarwei, Joseph Wegmann International distribution: Inge Koks Press: Lea-Maria Kneisel A production by Public in Private / Jasna L. Vinovrški . Funded by the Berlin Senatsverwaltung for Culture and Europe, the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the City of Zagreb. In co-production with Studio Contemporary Dance Company Zagreb and Tanzfabrik Berlin Now and Then . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.74 Concept, Performance: Christina Ciupke, Jasna L. Vinovrški Light design: Martin Beeretz Sound: Boris Hauf Costumes: Malena Modéer Dramaturgical Support: Irina Müller Press, PR: Lilly Schofield Photography: Dieter Hartwig Productiondramaturg: Barbara Greiner Production by A lot of body GbR in co-production with Tanzfabrik Berlin. Funded by Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa. Supported by apap-Performing Europe 2020, co financed by Creative Europe Programm of EU Blind Dates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.78 By and with Ayşe Orhon, Christina Ciupke, Clément Layes, Igor Dobričić, Jasna L. Vinovrški und Litó Walkey Light and Sound: Catalina Fernandez Technical Assistance: Emilio Cordero Checa, Dafne Narvaez

Assistant: Mia Štark Photography: Dajana Lother Production Dramaturgy: Barbara Greiner Press/ Social Media: Anita Goß A production by A lot of body GbR in co-production with Tanzfabrik Berlin Funded by Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa Supported by apap-Performing Europe 2020, co-financed by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union Allege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.94 Choreography/concept: Clément Layes Performance: Vincent Weber (201 3-201 6), Clément Layes (201 0-201 3) Dramaturgy: Jasna L. Vinovrški Music: David Byrne Costume: Public in private Light: Ruth Waldeyer, Florian Bach Photography: Dieter Hartwig , Renata Chueire A production by Public in Private. Thanks to Sophiensæle, Tanztage Berlin, Festival Ardanthé, Dock 1 1 , CND Paris To allege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.98 Concept: Clément Layes: Assistance dramaturgy/ choreography: Jasna L. Vinovrški Choreography/dance: Jasna L. Vinovrški, Felix M. Ott, Vidal Bini, Clément Layes, Ruth Waldeyer (+1 special guest) Light design: Rut Waldeyer Photography: Gerhard F. Ludwig

161

Der grüne Stuhl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 00 Concept/ direction: Clément Layes: Dramaturgic assistance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Choreography/ interpretation: Felix M. Ott, Felix Marchand, Clément Layes Photography: Gerhard F. Ludwig Produced by Public in Private. Thanks to Tanznacht Berlin 201 2 Things That Surrounds Us. . . . . . . . p.1 02 Concept/choreography: Clément Layes Performance/ choreography: Felix Marchand, Ante Pavic, Vincent Weber Objects/stage: Marinus van Eldik Light: Ruth Waldeyer Music: Tian Rotteveel Dramaturgy: Florian Feigl Choreographic assistance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Photography: Gianina Urmeneta Ottiker, DoroTuch Press & production: björn & björn A production by Public in Private in co-production with Sophiensæle Berlin and Workspace Brussels. Supported by the governing Mayor of Berlin – the Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs. Thanks to the BSR, Haver & Boecker, Alfred Kärcher GmbH and Kärcher Center Benne, Flutgraben e.V. Dreamed Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . . p.1 07 Choreography/concept: Clément Layes with Vincent Weber, Felix Marchand, Justin Palermo & one guest Dramaturgy: Jonas Rutgeerts Concept & choreographic collaboration: Jasna L. Vinvorški Collaboration dramaturgy: Henri Layes Light: Ruth Waldeyer

Sound: Uli Ertl Costumes: Jelka Plate & Eike Böttcher Distribution: BOLD Photography: Dieter Hartwig Production management: björn & björn A Production by Public in Private, co-Kunstencentrum BUDA Kortrijk (BE), co-produced by Sophiensæle Berlin (D), Dampfzentrale Bern (CH), Uzès Danse (F), Théâtre de Nîmes (F), fabrik Potsdam (D). Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund Germany. Supported by Etape Danse, initiated by the Inistitut Français Deutschland/Bureau du Théâtre et de la Danse and fabrik Potsdam, with the help of Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication/DGCA, of the SACD and the city of Potsdam. Thanks to: Kunstfabrik Flutgraben, Stamsund International Theaterfestival & Uferstudios Berlin

Moving Drum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 1 4 Clément Layes composing for/with Steve Heather & Anthea Caddy A production of Labor sonor for the festival moving music Curated by Christian Kesten, Andrea Nemann Co-conception: Arthur Rother, Derek Shirley Reseach/ curation: Matthias Haenisch Photography: Steve Heather, Anthea Caddy Organized by Labor Sonor in cooperation with Ballhaus Ost. Supported by the Governing Mayor of Berlin - Senate Chancellery - Cultural Affairs, cross-divisional funding, and the District Office Pankow of Berlin, Office for Further Education and Culture - Department of Art and Culture

Eternal Return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 1 8 Choreography: Clément Layes Artistic advisor: Jasna L.Vinovrški Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 1 0 Performance: Asaf Aharonson, Daniel Choreography/ Performance: Clément Layes AlmgrenRecén, Cécile Bally, Rafal In collaboration with and performed by: Clément Layes, Felix Marchand, Vincent Weber Dziemidok, Ulrike Gabe, Steven Koglin, Calissa Layes, Felix Marchand, Lee Méir, Light: Ruth Waldeyer Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, Larisa Navojec, Sound dramaturgy: Ulrike Ertl Liselotte Singer, Bahar Temiz, André Uerba, Drum: Steve Heather Nir Vidan, Albrecht Walter Dramaturgy: Jonas Rutgeerts Dramaturgy: Jonas Rutgeerts Artistic collaboration: Jasna L. Vinovrški Sound: Steve Heather Press & Production: björn & björn Stage: Jonas Maria Droste, Chris Gylee, Photography: Robin Kirchner Clément Layes A production by Public in Private/Clément Light: Ruth Waldeyer Layes. Funded by the governing Mayor of Costumes: Malena Modeer Berlin - Senat’s Chancellery - Cultural Affairs and Fonds Darstellende Kuenste. Supported by Press & Production: björn & björn Photography: Diego Agullo Sophiensæle, tanzhaus nrw, STUK Leuven, A production by Public in Private/Clément Tanzquartier Wien, Uferstudios and Layes Flutgraben.

Co-produced by Platform 0090 and Manège, Scène Nationale - Reims. Funded by the German Capital Cultural Fund, the Senate Administration for Culture and Europe and the Fonds Transfabrik - Fonds franco-allemand pour le spectacle vivant. Supported by Sophiensæle Berlin, Fabrik Potsdam and STUK Leuven. Thanks to Flutgraben e.V Five Studies for Emergency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 22 Concept/ Choreography: Clément Layes Performance: Steven Koglin, Dina Ekštajn, Ana Vnučec, Florencia Martina, Jonas Maria Droste, Ante Pavić Sound design: Steven Heather Light design: Ruth Waldeyer Stage design: Jonas Maria Droste, Clément Layes Costume: Ana Savić-Gecan Costume assistance: Ozana Gabriel Artistic assistance: Jasna L. Vinovrški Dramaturgy: Jonas Rutgeerts Video: Christopher Hewitt Internationale Communication: Inge Koks PR Production: björn & björn Photography: Dieter Hartwig A production of Public in Private/Clément Layes in co-production with Studio za suvremeni ples / Studio - Contemporary Dance Company Zagreb. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. With the friendly support of Flutgraben e.V. and SOPHIENSÆLE

ONON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 26 Choreography: Clément Layes Performance: Cécile Bally, Mariana Nobre Vieira, Asaf Aharonson, Nir Vidan, Stage: Jonas Maria Droste, Clément Layes Light: Ruth Waldeyer Sound: Steve Heather Costume: Malena Modéer Video: Christopher Hewitt Dramaturgy: Jonas Rutgeerts International communication: Inge Koks Press and production: björn & björn Photography: Gerhard Ludwig A production Public in Private / Clément Layes in coproduction with Platform: 0090, C-Takt, supported by the cultural department of the flemish community. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe and the NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZco-production funding Dance, supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for the Culture and the Media. Supported by SOPHIENSÆLE Berlin, Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), STUK (Leuven) and wpZimmer (Antwerp) and Flutgraben.

Montag Modus Klimata . . . . . . . . . p.1 44 201 9 Team: Dániel Kovács Jasna L. Vinovrški Léna Szirmay-Kalos Micaela Kühn Jara Photographer: Barbara Antal Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Collegium Hungaricum Berlin. Supported by Flutgraben e.V., and Studio Public in Private. www.mmpraxis.com/montag-modus/projects/klimata-201 9 Flutgraben Performances. . . . . . . p.1 50 201 9 - 2020 Team: Clément Layes Jasna L. Vinovrški Moritz Majce Sandra Man Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Supported by Flutgraben e.V., and Studio Public in Private. www.flutgrabenperformances.org

3AM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.1 38 201 4 - 201 7 Team: Clément Layes Dmitry Paranyushkin Jasna L. Vinovrški Nina Kurtela Sandra Man Founded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Supported by Flutgraben e.V., Studio Public in Private Studio and Special Agency Studio. www.3am.events

163

Thank you to all the performers that helped us bring our ideas and concepts to life on stage. Thank you to Inge Koks, Bjoern Frers and Jonas Rutgeerts for the short texts which appear in the works: Healers, Things that surround us, Dreamed apparatus, Title, The eternal return, The emergency artist and ONON. Thank you to the production managers that supported us with great dedication during our productions: Bjoern Frers, Joseph Wegmann, Inge Koks, Valerie Tarwei, Susanne Ogan, Ilja Fontain and Barbara Greiner Thank you to the dramaturgs who supported us in the path of finding the meaning of what we are doing: Florian Feigel, Katja von der Ropp, Irina Müller and Jonas Rutgeerts Thank you to the light designers, costume designers, stage designers, videasts and musicians that supported our artistic visions: Ruth Waldeyer, Catalina Fernandez, Martin Beeretz, Bojan Gagic, Clair Terrien, Malena Modéer, Jelka Plate & Eike Böttcher, Ana Savic-Gecan,Tanja Libermann, Regina Lorenz, Jonas Maria Droste, Chris Gylee, Christopher Hewitt, Boris Hauf, Ulrike Ertl and Steve Heather Thank you to the curators, our co-productions partners and the journalists that have been following and supporting our works. Thank you to all the artists, the production managers and the supportive audience that participated in the events “3AM“, “MM Klimata“ and “Flutgraben Performances“. Thank you to Mia Štark for her great commitment in working on this publication.

Biography

Jasna L. Vinovrški Born 1 974, in Zagreb, Croatia (former Yugoslavia). Lives and works in Berlin .

www.jasnavinovrski.com Education 1 994 -1 999 Graduated at Folkwang Hochschule Essen, Germany 201 0-201 2 Master degree at Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT); Berlin Germany 201 4-201 5 Promotion course with Bojana Kunst at ATW (Institute for applied theater studies); Giessen, Germany Grants 2006 Kunststiftung Baden-Würtemberg 2004 Dance Web Scholarship Program Impulstanz in Vienna Awards 2006 International Choreography Festival Masdanza in Spain; 3rd prize for the choreography "Which Club? 2005 9th International Solo Dance Competition in Stuttgart the choreography "Which Club?" 2nd prize for the choreography 201 6 selected by the Aerowaves Dance Across Europe network with the work “Staying alive” Clément Layes Works as performer and dancer: 1 990-1 991 Beauty andthe beast, Current bomb by Ivana Popović, LMO company 1 991 -1 992 Everybody goes to disco from Moskow to St. Francisco by Montazstroj Physical Theatre, Zagreb; artistic direction: B. Šeparović 1 992 - 1 993 Difficile de Prevoir ce qui va se Passer by Groupe Dunes, artistic direction: M. Chiche and B. Misrachi; Dance week festival 1 991 , Friche Belle de Mai Marseille

1 998 Graduation work at Folkwang Hochschule by Susanne Linke 1 999 - 2003 Petrushka, Concerto, Central Park

in the Dark, Hochland, Bernarda Albas Haus, Senza Fine, On the road, Fit for life, La guerra d’amore, About kings, queens andwitches, Orfeo by Joachim Schlömer; works in the frame of various festivals, city theater and international tours: Theater Basel, Cologne City Theatre, Provincialni Tanzi Russia, Cal Performances San Francisco USA, Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne City Theatre, Stuttgart State Opera etc. 2003 - 2004 Risse by Hans Werner Klohe; Dock 1 1 Berlin, Tanzatage Berlin, Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz Stuttgart, PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany; Teatro Pradillo Madrid, Spain 2004- 2006 Kafaks Verwandlung, One halfof front, Carmina Burana, Keksbruch, Ten, Zocker, Der Schimmelreiter, Out ofharms way in the frame of the Theater Freiburg – Heidelberg program; artistic direction: Irina Pauls; guest choreographers: Joachim Schlomer, Cie Drift and David Bolger 2006 – 2007 Qui, qui pourquoi pas en effet! by Carlotta Sagna; La Ferme du Buisson, Theatre de Vanves, Theater de la Bastille, Paris, France 2007 Rien ne laisse présager de l'état de l'eau by Odile Duboc; Centre National de la Danse (CND); Paris, France 201 3 Froufrou by Marie Caroline Hominal; Théâtre de l’ADC-Geneva, Zürich Moves Zürich, Switzerland; CDC Toulouse, France

Teachings: 2001 Guest lecturer at Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen 201 4 Guest lecturer at Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT), Berlin; BA "Dance, Context, Choreography" 201 5 Guest lecturer at University of Music and Dance Cologne (HfMT), MA Dance Education and Dance Studies

201 5 - 201 7 Guest lecturer at Academy of dramatic art (ADU), Zagreb 201 7 Guest lecturer at Mimar Sinar University, Istanbul, Turkey Choreographic works: 2002 PAIDEA Choreography for the students (BA), commissioned by Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany 2003 - 2004 MITTLEWELLE AFC Premier Dock 1 1 in Berlin, Germany2003 Teatro Nouvo, Neaples, Italy 2004 Zagreb Dance Week Festival, Zagreb; Croatia 2004 2005 - 2007 WHICH CLUB? 9. International solo dance theatre festival; Stuttgart, Germany 2005 Masdanza international choreography festival; Spain 2006 Holland dance festival; Den Haag, Holand 2006 Rencontres-choreographic internationales; Paris, France 2007 Tanztage; Berlin, Germany 2006 Theater Freiburg; Freiburg Germany 2006 Tanec Praha Festival; Prag, Check Republic 2006; Platforma HR; Zagreb, Croatia 2007 Dansa Valencia; Valencia, Spain 2007 2007 TEMPORARY EXPOSITION / CATCH 22 (site specific) Kunstverein Freiburg; Freiburg, Germany 2007 2008 - 2009 UNDER CONSTRUCTION E-werk; Freiburg, Germany 2008 Dock 1 1 ; Berlin, Germany 2009 Dance week festival; Zagreb, Croatia 2009 Festival Artdanthé; Paris, France 201 0 201 1 A4 INSTALLATION (site specific) Volkswagen Universitätsbibliothek Berlin, Germany 201 1

165

201 2 LIVE TO TAPE, A STILL MOVING TALK SHOW Uferstudios; Berlin, Germany, 201 2 Dance Week Festival; Zagreb, Croatia 201 2 201 4 - 201 5 MODAL VERBS Uferstudios; Berlin, Germany, 201 4 Platforma HR, Zagreb, Croatia, 201 5 201 5 - 201 6 STAYING ALIVE OperaEstate festival; Bassano del Grappa, Italy 201 5 La Briqueterie; Paris, France 201 5 Circuit-Est; Montreal, Canada 201 5 The Dance Centre Vancouver; Vancouver, Canada 201 5 Veem-Batard festival; Amsterdam, Netherlands 201 5 Zagreb Dance Center; Zagreb, Croatia 201 6 Montag Modus event at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin; Berlin, Germany 201 6 Aerowaves Twenty - Spring Forward; Pilzen; Check Republic 201 6 Theater Spanski Borci; Ljubljana, Slovenia 201 6 Malta festival; Poznan, Poland 201 6 Dansen Hus; Oslo, Norway 201 6 Bora Bora festival; Aarhus, Denmark 201 6 Dance and non verbal festival San Vincenti; San Vincenti, Croatia 201 6 Dance house Limassol; Limassol, Cyprus 201 7 Dance house Limassol; Limassol, Cyprus 201 7 Dance Limerick; Limerick, Irland 201 7 NU dance festival; Bratislava, Slovak Republic 201 7 Malta festival; Poznan, Poland 201 6 Theatre Seveline 36; Lausanne, Switzerland 201 7 Mimar Sinar Universit; Istanbul, Turkey, 201 7 Mercat de les Flors; Barcelona, Spain 201 7 Rencontres-choreographic internationales; Paris, France 201 7 Theater de la Ville; Paris, France 201 7 The Place; London, UK 201 7 ARC dance festival; Athens, Greece 201 8

Abrons Dance Center, New York City, USA 201 8 201 6 - 201 7 LADY JUSTICE Circuite èst; Montreal, Canada 201 6 3AM event at Flutgraben Atelierhouse; Berlin, Germany 201 7 Chantier d'europe festival at Theater de la Ville; Paris, France 201 7 Dance Week Festival; Zagreb, Croatia 201 7 201 7 TEN TASKS Choreography for the students (BA), commissioned by Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia 201 7 201 8 – 201 9 ANSAMBL Platforma HR; Zagreb, Croatia 201 8 ZKM Theater; Zagreb, Croatia 201 9 201 9 SPACE, MOVEMENT, VOICE Choreography for the students (BA), commissioned by Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia 201 9 201 9 - 2020 HEALERS Flutgraben performances event; Berlin, Germany 201 9 Open spaces festival at Tanzfabrik Berlin; Berlin, Germany 2020 ZKM Theater; Zagreb, Croatia 201 9

201 9 BLIND DATE

Co-creations 2001 - 2002 RHYTHM AND CHANGES

Lifelong projects 2008 birth of the first daughter Calissa Layes (2008-2009 parental leave) 201 8 birth of the second daughter Alva Sophia Layes (201 8-201 9 parental leave)

co-creation with Norbert Steinwarz Theater Basel; Basel, Switzerland 200; Theater Ravensburg, Ravensburg 2002

2006 FRAGILE ON THE EDGE

co-creation with Clément Layes Theater Freiburg; Freiburg, Germany 2006; Tanzhaus Wasserwerk, Zürich, Switzerland 2006; Dance Week Festival; Zagreb, Croatia 2007

201 8 NOW and THEN

co-creation with Christina Ciupke Tanzfabrik Berlin, Open spaces festival; Berlin, Germany 201 8; Montag Modus Event at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin; Berlin, Germany 201 8

co-creation with Ayşe Orhon, Litó Walkey, Clément Layes, Christina Ciupke, andIgor Dobričić Tanzfabrik Berlin-Open spaces festival, Berlin, Germana 201 9; Montag Modus Klimata at Flutgraben e.V., Berlin, Germany 201 9

Dramaturgic and choreographic collaboration in the works of other artists: 201 0 - 2020 Allége, To, allége, Things that surroundus, Eternal Return, ONON, Der grüne Stuhl andTitle by Clément Layes 201 5 I love my dancers by Uri Turkenich

Organization and curation 201 4 - 201 7 3AM; Flutgraben Atelierhouse, Berlin, Germany 201 9 Montag Modus Klimata; Collegium Hungaricum Berlin and Flutgraben Performances 201 8 - 2020 Flutgraben performances; Flutgraben Atelierhouse; Berlin, Germany

Clément Layes Born 1 978, in Firminy, France . Lives and works in Berlin.

2007 Temporary exposition/catch 22 by Jasna L. Vinovrški; Freiburg Kunstverein, Freiburg, Germany 2008/2009 Under Construction by Jasna L. Vinovrški; E-werk Freiburg, 2008 , Dock 1 1 Berlin, 2009, Dance week festival, Zagreb, Croatia 2009, Festival Artdanthé Paris, France

Choreographic center Oulu; Oulu, Finland 201 2 Gessnerallee Zürich; Zürich, Switzerland 201 1 Zodiak festival; Helsinki, Finland 201 1 www.clementlayes.com Mercat de les flors; Barcelona, Spain 201 2 Buda-Kortrijk; Kortrijk, Belgium 201 2 Education Brighton Festival; Brighton, UK 201 2 1 998-2000 Université Lyon 2-3: Histoire de Choreographic works Festival a/d Werf; Utrecht, Netherlands 201 2 l'art-histoire de la dance et Philosophie, Stamsund Festival; Satmsund, Norway 201 2 201 0-201 6 ALLEGE Lyon; France Festival Tanztage; Sophiensaelen Berlin; Germany Leeds dance festival; Leeds, UK 201 2 1 998-2000 Ecole de cirque de Lyon; Lyon, 201 0 Tanz Bremen festival; Bremen, Germany 201 2 France Kaai theater; Brussels, Belgium 201 2 Festival Ardanthé; Paris, France 201 0 1 999-2000 Conservatoire national de Noorderzon; Groningen, Netherlands 201 2 Atelierhouse Flutgraben; Berlin, Germany 201 0 région de musique et de danse de Lyon DNA festival Bora Bora; Aarhus, Denmark Zagreb dance center; Zagreb, Croatia 201 0 (CNR); Lyon, France 201 3 Weltecho Festival; Chemnitz, Germany 201 0 2000-200 3 Conservatoire national suThéâtre NWE Vorst Tilburg; Tilburg, Netherlands Sophiensaele; Berlin, Germany 201 3 périeure de musique et de danse de Lyon 201 0 ARC dance festival; Athens, Greece 201 3 (CNSMD); Lyon, France Danshallerne; Copenhagen, Denmark 201 3 Tanznacht The Village; Berlin, Germany 201 0 2005-200 8 Feldenkrais method education; Dance House Limassol; Limassol, Cyprus 201 0 WALKER art center; Minneapolis, USA 201 4 Basel, Switzerland Ladies bird festival; Philadelphia, USA 201 4 Aerowaves Spring Forward; Ljubljana, Slovenia EMPAC -TROY; New york, USA 201 4 201 1 NAC; Ottawa, Canada 201 4 Awards Tanec Praha Festival; Prag, Czech Republic 201 1 Theatre Seveline 36; Lausanne, Switzerland 38th Infant Festival; Special award for the Moving station Theater; Pilsen, Czech Republic 201 4 work Allége for the the most original 201 1 Tanztage Braunschweig; Braunschweig, exploration of one segment of theatrical THEATRE K3; Olomouc, Czech Republic 201 1 Germany 201 4 language; Novi Sad, Serbia 201 1 Ponec Theater; Prag, Czech Republic 201 1 Arcus Temporum Festival; Pannonhalma, Prix Jardin d’Europe – awarded in the Infant Festival; Novi Sad, Serbia 201 1 Hungary 201 4 frame of eXplore Dance festival in Bucha- Festival Armuria; Castiglioncello, Italy 201 1 PLartFORMA Festival; Klaipeda, Lithuania rest, Rumania 201 1 Malta festival; Poznan, Poland 201 1 201 4 Aerowaves: twice selected by the Dock 1 1 ; Berlin, Germany 201 1 Tanzquartier; Vienna; Austria 201 5 Aerowaves Dance Across Europe network ImPulsTanz Vienna, 8 tension; Vienna, Austria Tanzhaus NRW; Düsseldorf, Germany 201 5 with works: “allege”201 1 and “Der Grüne 201 1 Veem-Batard festival; Amsterdam, Stuhl”201 3 B-motionfestival; Bassano del Grappa, italy 201 1 Netherlands 201 5 Summerhouse festival- The Place; London, UK Scene national d’Orlean; Orlean, France 201 6 201 1 Works as performer and dancer Theater Spanski Borci, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2003-2004 BOCAL; Association EDNA with Theatre de l'usine; Geneva, Switzerland 201 1 Boris Charmatz; Impulztanz Vienna, Festi- Visioni di (p)arte International Dance Festival; Bari, 201 6 Biennale Teatro-La Biennale di Venezia; Italy 201 1 val des antipodes le quartz Brest, Centre Venezia, Italy 201 8 i-dance festival; Istanbul, Turkey 201 1 national de la danse- Paris, Les SubsisteTanz Bremen, Schwankhalle; Bremen, Dance station festival; Belgrade, Serbia and nces-Lyon Germany 201 9 Skopje, North Macedonia 201 1 2004-201 0 Rien ne laisse présager de l' état de l'eau, Trois Boléros by Odile Duboc Festival Drugajanje; Maribor, Slovenia 201 1 in the frame of Centre choréographique de Belfort; tour in France

167

201 1 TO ALLEGE Tanztage Berlin; Berlin, Germany 201 2-201 4 THINGS THAT SURROUND US Festival International WT#4 Brigittines; Brussels, Belgium 201 2 Sophiensaelen; Berlin, Germany 201 2 CAMPO; Gent, Belgium 201 3 Budascoop-Kortrijk; Kortrijk, Belgium 201 3 Exodus festival; Lubljana, Slovenia 201 3 Flutgraben Kunsfabrick; Berlin, Germany 201 3 DAMPFZENTRALE; Berlin, Switzerland 201 3 Festival La Batie; Geneva, Switzerland 201 3 Theatre Seveline 36; Lausanne, Switzerland 201 4 Tanzquartier; Vienna, Austria 201 4 Bergen Assembly 201 6; Bergen, Norway 201 6 Biennale Teatro-La Biennale di Venezia; Venezia, Italy 201 8 201 2-201 4 DER GRÜNE STUHL Tanznacht; Berlin, Germany 201 2 The Place; London, UK 201 2 Aerowaves Spring Forward; Zurich, Switzerland 201 3 Stamsund Teaterfestival; Stamsund; Norway 201 3 International Dance Theatre Festival; Lublin, Poland 201 3 201 4-201 8 DREAMED APPARATUS Kunstencentrum BUDA Kortrijk; Kortrijk, Belgium 201 4 DAMPFZENTRALE; Berlin, Switzerland 201 4 Sophiensaele; Berlin, Germany 201 4 Festival Uzes danse-Uzes (canceled) 201 4 Théâtre de Nîmes; Nimes, France 201 4 3AM Flutgraben Berlin, Germany 201 4 Biennale Teatro-La Biennale di Venezia; Venezia, Italy 201 8 201 5 - 201 8 TITLE Sophiensaele; Berlin, Germany 201 5 Veem-Batard festival; Amsterdam, Netherlands 201 5 Beursschouwburg-WTS; Brussels, Belgium 201 5

The image generator festival; Antwerp, Belgium 201 6 Potsdamer Tanztage; Potsdam, Germany 201 6 Orbis pictus festival-Manège de Reims; Reims, France 201 6 Purple music-dance festival; Berlin, Germany 201 6 Tanznacht Berlin; Berlin, Germany, 201 6 Tanzquartier Wien; Vienna, Austria 201 6 Cirko-Helsinki; Helsinki, Finland 201 7 Dubrovacke ljetne igre; Dubrovnik, Croatia 201 8 Biennale Teatro-La Biennale di Venezia; Venezia, Italy 201 8 201 7-201 9 ETERNAL RETURN Sophiensaele; Berlin, Germany 201 7 Mimar sinan dance university ; Istanbul, Turkey 201 7 Fabrik Potsdam; Potsdam, Germany 201 8 Le Manège de Reims; Reims, France 201 8 STUK art center Leuven; Leuven, Belgium 201 8 201 8 -201 9 EMERGENCY ARTIST Sophiensaele; Berlin, Germany 201 8 Platforma HR; Zagreb, Croatia 201 8 Dance and non verbal Festival San Vincenti; San Vincenti, Croatia 201 8 Osijek summer culture; Osijek, Croatia 201 8 ZKM; Zagreb, Croatia 201 9 201 8-201 9 ONON 1 - 5 3AM Flutgraben Kunstfabrick; Berlin, Germany 201 7/1 8 Montag Modus event at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin; Berlin, Germany 201 8 Sophiensaele (official premier); Berlin, Germany 201 9 201 8 ALLEGE, THINGS THAT SURROUND US, DREAMED APPARATUS, TITLE Biennale Teatro-La Biennale di Venezia; Venezia; Italy 201 9 201 9 ONONON (young audience ) Explore dance Fabrik Potsdam 201 9 -various primary schools in Potsdam; Potsdam, Germany 201 9 Flutgraben performances; Berlin, Germany 201 9 K3; Hamburg, Germany 201 9

201 9 - 2020 RESTE/POLLUTION (postponed) Montag Modus Klimata at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin; Berlin, Germany 201 9 201 8-Biennale Teatro-La Biennale di Venezia Co-creations 2005 HISTOIRES D’IMPRESSIONS -

co-creation with collective Als (as, commes): Cécile Laloy ,Damien Sabatier, Johana Moaligou Centre choregraphique National de Rilleux la Pape, cie Maguy Marin; Lyon, France; Ramdam Lyon; Lyon, France; La Fonderie; Le Man, France 2006 - FRAGILE ON THE EDGE; co-creation with Jasna L. Vinovrški Theater Freiburg, Germany; Tanzhaus Wasserwerk, Zürich, Switzerland; Dance Week Festival, Zagreb, Croatia 201 2-201 4 THE WAITING ROOM – co creation with Diego Agullo andDmitry Paranyushkin andPetar Stammer Flutgraben Kunstfabrick, Tanznacht Uferstudios, Berlin; Degrowth conference-Leipzig, Germany

201 5-201 6 AUTONOMOUS CHOREOGRAPHY – co-creation with Meryem Bayram; STUK art center Leuven, Belgium; Istanbul EMWAP, Istanbul, Turkey; Kaai Theater WTS*2 Brussels, Belgium 201 9 BLIND DATE; co-creation with Ayşe Orhon, Litó Walkey, Clément Layes, Christina Ciupke, Jasna L.Vinovrski andIgor Dobričić Tanzfabrik Berlin - Open spaces festival, Berlin, Germany; Montag Modus Klimata at Flutgraben Atlierhous

Stage design collaboration in works of other artists:

Under construction, Modal verbs, Lady justice, Ansambl, Healers by Jasna L. Vinovrski Blinddate by Ayşe Orhon, Litó Walkey, Clément Layes, Christina Ciupke, Igor Dobričić, Jasna L. Vinovrski

Organization and curation 201 3 Buda Vista 2- Kunstencentrum BUDA; Kortrijk, Belgium 201 4 - 201 7 3AMevent at Flutgraben Atelierhouse; Berlin, Germany 201 8 - 2020 Flutgraben performances at Flutgraben Atelierhouse , Berlin, Germany

169

Impressum A publication by Public in Private published on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the Public in Private company

Clément Layes

editor

Jasna L. Vinovrški

editor

Beatrix Joyce

contributing editor and proofreading

Mia Štark

lay out and cover design

Ivana Ostojčić

translation from Croatian to English

Anna Galt

translation from German to English

Clément Layes

translation from French to English

Unless otherwise noted, all photographic documentation is courtesy of the artists, Public in Private, Flutgraben Performances and 3AM. Copyright © 2021 Public in Private "All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or information storage or retrieval system without written permission from the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review." Printing: Denona d.o.o. Print run: 200 Printed in Croatia Zagreb, March 2021

ISBN 978-3-00-065258-5 171

Public in private is this moment when the audience, the public is invited to enter the very specific, private, intimate work of a choreographer in theatre. The stage is the place where the work is revealed, where it becomes public. The realtionship between the public and the private has with recent, technological developments drastically changed: our lives have become partially virtual, and in this virtuality, it seems the private has become other. We're interested in the live moment of the encounter. When for the artist something private unfolds on stage and becomes public, it paradoxically produces a feeling, a thought - something private - in the audience.

ISBN 978-3-00-065258-5 Berlin/Zagreb, 2021